RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel Fanfiction Full
by YukkuriThousand
Summary: simply a reupload of the five-part fanfiction that I did before. nothing new here. I am currently working on a new RKSF fan story of my own. will be uploaded when I think it's something that is actually worth it ... all the stories that I am doing here will be uploaded to my deviantart account "AnimeTeikoku" as well. I will be uploading sketches of RKSF as well over there


_RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel_

_~Es Werde Licht Fuer Die Göttin~_

Note from the Compiler…

The story of RosenkreuzStilette ~The Blades of Rose Cross~ is the work of our well known WOMI-sensei. I simply compiled WOMI-sensei's story into such a fan fiction while trying to stay as true to the original story as possible, with my limited Japanese skill. Thus, don't be surprised that, by the day an English patch for RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel comes out, the original story text in the game turns out to be the same as what I compiled into this fiction.

The whole time while I was playing RKSF, I cannot stop thinking about the holy atmosphere created by WOMI-sensei's superior BGM and graphic; it was as if Freudia's world is a true "Kingdom of the Last Elf" where taints from our world do not reach. It is my wish to present this story to as far an extent as possible in terms of truthfulness.

I do not know how many people will find this story. It is not my top priority to get attention in writing this story anyway. Thus, I hope that those of you who actually did find this story could also see what I am seeing now; a frozen yet beauteous Walpurgisnacht.

And so, "let there be light for the goddess…"

**Der Anfang Des Endes**

A ray of burning laser slashed across the twilight sky as a dark seraph flew into the blazing holy aurora, following by a blonde-haired girl dressed in black and white gothic suite.

"Iris!"

The seraph turned around, the aurora behind her glowing like an evil halo, foiling the spite and contempt in her eyes.

"Tia, how should I comment on this idiot known as you?" the seraph mocked, "let me land the holy judgment on you at the very least. Scream, suffer, and wither at the hand of God "

The gothic girl stopped in front of the seraph. She has neither wings to fly the sky nor an air of devastation. Her eyes were as firm as her spirit.

"Iris, I will stop you right here!"

"Nonsense!" the seraph started chanting, "_Es werde licht!_"

A bundle of raging laser shot out from the wings of the seraph towards the gothic girl.

"_Geisterwand!_" a wall of dark elements were conjured out of air by the chant, colliding head-on with the laser.

"Hahaha, let's see how long you can last " the seraph glared unforgivingly into the point where her laser angrily ate away at the barriers when a tiny ball of light jumped right in front of in surprise, "ya!"

"Let go of Tia!" a tiny green fairy shouted.

"Get out of here you dirty bug!" The seraph, not losing her poise, gave a short chant and soon the fairy was trapped into a yellow sphere.

"TIA!"

"Your Tia is not coming!" the seraph sang out her words of doom for the fairy just when the barriers collapsed at the unyielding pressure of the laser.

"What?" the gothic girl was, to the seraph's surprise, not behind the barrier.

"_FREUDENZWINGER!_"

Sixty four magic platforms dashed out from behind the seraph, encircling her in all directions. Snow icicles shot out of each one of the platforms into the other, forming a prison that locked the seraph inside.

"Tia!" the seraph hissed with hostility. The girl she called "Tia" was floating above her on a frozen ice platform, her hair white as snow and eyes red as if in sadness. Slowly, her hair color started to change again, this time, towards orange.

"Iris," Tia whispered gently, "I believe…" Tia's hair is completely orange now. She held out her palm towards the seraph in the ice prison, sparks of waves started to gather, "I believe, that you will change. So come back to us, won't you?"

"I won't let you win that easily!"

In Tia's hand, a glittering orange ball of energy was roaring.

_Break, the ice prison. Take the seraph, and give us back Iris… _Tia raised her arm above her head and flung it down towards the ice prison.

"_LUSTEATEM!_"

The holy church collapsed in a series of thunders that Tia was not aware of; the serene drape of twilight as if marking the beginning of the end…

It's been two month since the rebellion the RosenkreuzStilette. The army of the church started to move again in the persecution of the magi. The people with power divided into two groups; one stood up against the church and one planned an organized pilgrimage under the protection of the RosenkreuzStilette. The former perished, and a dark hand is about to reach the throat of the latter…

Tia and Lilli were hurrying towards the imperial training hall, the ghosts of magi's screams and blood haunted them as if in search of appeasement.

"Lilli… what I did, were those wrong?" Tia murmured gently, a trace of regret started to surge in her voice.

"Absolutely not!" the little green fairy asserted firmly, "Tia only did all she could to help!" But realizing the plight they were in and Tia's confusion, Lilli started to feel the knot in her own training of thoughts as well, "it's not Tia's fault…"

"Thank you, Lilli." Tia uttered gently, knowing that her faithful friend had done what she could just like she did for her own friends. _It doesn't matter whether what I did was right or not. But I cannot allow myself to simply stand and watch. This power… will the shield for my friends…_

As the two stepped into the imperial training hall, a familiar voice struck them suddenly.

"Alas, isn't this cutie here Tia-chan?"

The voice was flippant, but nevertheless sent a chill down Tia and Lilli's spine. A dark figure walked out of the shadow of the stain glasses. She has chestnut colored hair with a slim pair of glasses bridged on top of her nose. She carries a hammer whose size is nearly twice her height and the drench coat that she wore was as if stained in blood.

"Schirach!?"

Schirach smiled dagger and bid her greetings, "Yo Tia-chan, how are you DOING!" With the last word said, Schirach violently brought her hammer down, shaking the ground while an octopus machine teleported right above Tia, immobilized her, and brought her into the midair.

"Iya!" Regaining her sense, Tia looked up at Schirach in confusion, "why are you doing this, Schirach? And why are you here? Didn't you disappear from the RKS a long while ago?"

"That's a lot of questions you've got over there, baby," Schirach's lips curved up, "but unfortunately, I was simply told to guide your way to the church. So here you go!"

A shot of hot air pumped out of the back of the octopus machine and it started to fly back towards the church. "Tia!" Lilli shouted and chased after the machine without even leaving Schirach with a glare.

"Oh, by the way!" Schirach yelled after the machine, "Don't try anything weird! That machine was designed to seal your magi… man, that thing flies fast… right, Ai-chan?"

Another teleportation brought, this time, a young girl in front of Schirach. She is dressed in a blue coat and hat with a yellow cross in front of her chest. A long scarf dangled down from her neck to her exposed legs just like her pale, yellow hair.

"Schirach, have you done the job?" the girl asked emotionlessly.

"All like planned, for the sake of myself as well… good luck in holding her back I guess."

"Is she really going to come? I don't want to waste time on anything pointless."

"Don't worry about. Can't you see this snow falling?"

Outside of the imperial training hall, a lonely Moon casted down her pale white light on the ground. Slowly, snake flakes started to dance the sky as an aura of frozen magic started to fill the atmosphere…

**Schneenacht der Anfang**

Freudia Neuwahl was flying towards the imperial training hall.

_Tia's aura disappeared... no, there's still a trace of it, and it's getting further away… did something happen…_

Freudia's aura coated all the statues in the hall with a layer of snow. The shadow of the snow only made the statues look more omninent.

_Tia_…

"Wa "

_…!?_

"Ehehe," Freudia stopped and gracefully landed herself on the ground at the sound of giggle. The light of a small fairy appeared under one piece of falling snow flake. The little fairy had flowing blue hair and was dressed in a matching blue cloak. There didn't seem to Freudia to be a trace of negative sentiment in the fairy's blue eyes.

_Blue, huh…_

"Are you kind to have smooth bumps on your head?" the fairy asked innocently, her eyes blinked with expectation, "Ruu likes very much to rub round objects "

_There is no time to deal with her. _

Freudia closed her eyes, in her usual habit, and flew past the fairy towards the bridge leading to front hall. A river gleaming chill below the bridge quietly flew past the rows of lily. A mountain sat peacefully in the distance under the white moon that dominated a third of the night sky. The territory that was once governed by Count Michael Sepperin was this vast. Freudia, sensing a different aura in the air, stopped again on her way towards the front entrance of the hall.

_…?_

In one glance, Freudia counted one hundred and twenty-three different locations around her where magic power is being poured into plants, all simultaneously. The mysterious wave of magic aura then started weaving an invisible yet intricate pattern around Freudia, as if with the help of the plants themselves, taking the shape of a transparent jail.

With one flick of her index finger, Freudia sent an icicle flying towards a withered yellow rose growing out of a crack on the bridge to the front left of herself. The aura in the air soon collapsed.

"Frozen ice magic aura. Is that you, Freudia?"

The girl who was talking to Schirach teleported herself in front of Freudia.

Freudia was in no mood for pleasantries and demanded, "Is that you who abducted Tia?"

"Correct." The girl answered curtly.

"Give her back now, if you don't want to be laid to sleep on a frozen bed." Freudia started to inject her aura into the air; for some reason, she felt that this fight is the one that she cannot evade.

"I have no interest in Spiritia Rosenberg. I am Eifer and my target is you. Die, Freudia." The girl said coldly.

"This is not even making any point."

"You rat!" with a low hiss, Eifer sent her aura pouring into the air, soon dominating over Freudia's aura. The plants around the two started to budge and were soon dancing to her rhythm.

"…!?" _This magic aura output… her body won't be able to support it long…?_

At the suicidal amount of aura she was spreading in that short amount of time, Freudia was quite sure that Eifer was serious. However, there wasn't much time for Freudia to think about the reason for that. The weeds below the bridge wriggled at the influence of the Eifer's aura, climbed along the pillars of the bridge and gathered themselves in front of Eifer. At the same time, the plants hardened into thousands of spears and fired themselves towards Freudia.

"_Schneekristal!_"

At the chanting, a meteor of blizzard struck down on the bridge in front of Freudia. The bridge collapsed at the pressure and giant pieces of rocks that originally constituted the art of the bridge were falling to their doom at the bottom of the river.

Freudia and Eifer floated in the mid-air, where Eifer's spears of plants were battling fiercely with Freudia's blades of snow. Down below them, the ruined bridge met the river and raised tides to the height of the two. The output of aura by Eifer started to decrease at the same time.

"It's over." Freudia claimed.

To Eifer's dismay, all the water around her started to gather and gradually took the form of her opponent. Soon, she was rounded off by dozens of clones of Freudia, all of whom are pointing their arms towards her. Even the pale light of the moon behind Eifer seemed to be freezing.

"_Freudenzwinger!_" Freudia's voice resonated around Eifer, "_Taste the absolute zero!_"

Simultaneously, all the clones started shooting and soon broke through the barrier of plants that Eifer managed to retract. She used up the last bit of her strength in putting out the aura around herself as a final protection against the unwavering Freudenstacel. However, the aura that she had left was no longer enough to even make her float and she was slammed into the wall of the imperial training hall by the stings of joy.

"Argh!"

Not wanting to kill her only source of information, Freudia stopped her attacks and landed herself in front of Eifer, her eyes closed again in her habit. Just before she could ask anything, her sense was captured by an unusually powerful atmosphere of aura. A magic platform cut itself in between Eifer and Freudia and a figure came walking out of it. She was clad in red and white battle coat, the formality of which reminded Freudia of the church. She has long red hair, partially tied by a dark red laced hair band, that extended down to her black tights. Her eyes are condescending and are a deeper red than Freudia's.

"Pamela!" Eifer managed in surprise.

"Eifer, stay down." Pamela ordered, her eyes scanning her next prey in front of her.

"I can still fight…"

"You have been ordered. Disobedience is not tolerated." Pamela glanced back, telling Eifer with her eyes that she wasn't joking.

"Tsk…"

"So you are Freudia Neuwahl, aren't you?" Pamela turned back to face Freudia. "I am Pamela Arwig, the captain of Schwarzkreuz, the black cross. I am here to give you the last chance to retract this pathetic little charade that the Rosenkreuz is putting up and subject yourselves to the holy church."

"And you think I will listen to you just because you said so?" Freudia replied firmly.

"Think about it, Neuwahl. Among all those who had betrayed the church, none was able to make it alive, not to mention the fact that the Schwarzkreuz led by me never let _any _traitors escape."

"Do you not understand what I am saying?" Freudia started to show signs of annoyance, "Or rather, it is you who should stop _your_ pathetic little charade and return Tia back to us."

"How lowly is this witchy stupidity!" Pamela exclaimed in disgust, "I thought you were a witch whom could actually handle some reasoning. Looks like I was blind. Eifer, we are going back to the church!"

To Freudia's surprise, Eifer was already able to stand up. Dusting the dirt off of her coat and adjusting her hat in place, Eifer stared deathly into Freudia's eyes.

"Freudia…"

"…"

"One day, I will put you to death. I promise."

Eifer left the words and teleported with Pamela, leaving Freudia among the heavenly snow dance.

_Schwarzkreuz… so they abducted Tia. This is really going to get complicated. But since they are the culprits, it's just reasonable to conclude that Tia's at the church... Tia…_

"Is the fight over?"

The voice of the tiny figure again interrupted Freudia's train of thoughts. The blue fairy showed herself before Freudia, who greeted her with silence.

"Ruu's name is Strudel. What's your name?"

Freudia let out half a sigh, "Why were you following me?"

"Your sparkling and freezing magic, Ruu is very fond of it!"

"Is that so? I am still in a hurry, take care." Freudia turned around, but the fairy flew to in front of Freudia again before she could teleport.

"Say, can I follow you?"

Judging that she won't be able to get rid of the fairy easily, Freudia brought her bitter memories again. The fire, the scream and the pain of the fairies and their futile struggle in putting out the fire…

"Strudel, listen to this. I am the witch who burned the Forest of Darkness that you elves lived in. If you know what that means, do not approach me again, OK?" Freudia said in her coldest tone and was surprised for a split second that the fairy's expression didn't change.

"Is that memory painful for you?" the words seemed to break Freudia's emotional barrier. Freudia stood there, in front of the fairy, letting her image and the vastness of the nature behind her sink in.

"Ruu, doesn't quite get what pain is. Ruu doesn't know where the Forest of Darkness is either."

_She doesn't know the forest? Isn't she from the same clan as Lilli? _Freudia forced her sense, and her shattered coldness, to return. "I don't know what is going to happen to you if you follow me and I certainly don't have the leisure to protect you. Don't be a burden to me."

"Then I will follow you anyway "

Freudia didn't know what to feel at the moment. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

"Do as you like."

**Der Wald von Gott**

The lack of sleep has never bothered Freudia. However, the lack of sleepiness had never been accompanied by pleasantries for her either.

A ray of sunlight found its way through the intricate pattern of leaves in the Forest of God, partially thawing the absolute freeze that was still left over from the night before.

The chirping of the birds, the cry of the insects, the frolic of the elves, Freudia would have been less oblivious to these if only she had the leisure.

_It should be the White Desert after this forest, past which, there's only one day of travel left before the church. Tia, wait for me…_

"Hey YOU!" Freudia came to a sudden halt; too much of her mind was occupied with thoughts of Tia that she didn't realize that she was trespassing on one of the guarded territories of the RKS Special Operation forces. A shuriken-shaped object smashed its way through the leaves and landed itself in front of Freudia.

"Dolis of the Special Ops squad if I am not mistaken?"

"Freudia Neuwahl!? What are you doing here? The strike forces are supposed to be holding off the church armies!" Dolis, throwing her right twin tail behind her head, snorted at Freudia.

"Unfortunately, there's something urgent. And as a member of the strike force, I was allowed to make judgments of myself in such case scenario." Freudia said with her eyes closed.

"Tsk," Dolis grimaced, "that's why I don't trust you strike forces; you are all so random all the time! Especially that moron Luste! Arghhh every time I think of how idiots like that could order me around, my stomach churns!"

_There's no ground for me to argue that one…_ Freudia was ashamed that she had to admit her agreement.

"But I have to follow the order of Sichte-sama. If you don't have Sichte-sama's words, I cannot let you pass!" Dolis claimed, holding up her weapon.

"What a little hothead…"

"YOU!" Dolis, now red in face, seemed to be on the verge of crying out loud, "YOU SAID THE TABOO, DIDN'T YOU! DON'T CALL ME SMALL!"

Not waiting for any response from Freudia, Dolis leaped into the air as if the ground held no bounds on her and faded into the background of greens, only leaving a few pieces of leaves drifting down from where she disappeared.

_Fesselspirale, this is going to be a drag…_

Dolis's shuriken flew out from the tree trunks to the left of Freudia. The blades scratch Freudia's waist and merged back into the trees. The figure of Freudia started to deform and soon melted into a pile of snow. Freudia herself landed right besides.

"Ha, is that what you call strike forces? You won't be lucky next time!"

Dolis jumped out from behind Freudia and, not waiting for Fesselspirale to return, slid towards Freudia and caught Freudia's right leg, causing her to lose balance. Freudia, poised as ever, leaned back and aimed at the ground;

"_Frostfackel!_"

With the recoil from the shot, Freudia came back on her feet while sending the ice torches burning in Dolis's direction. Dolis managed to jump away from the torches before they reached her and once again merged herself into the woods.

"Looks like you are something else, but don't think that you can always be lucky!" Dolis, obviously begrudged that her surprise attack fared badly, sent her voice through the woods, "let me see how you can attack without finding me!"

Dolis's time-consuming strategy quickly ate away at Freudia's patience, causing Freudia to start outputting in large amount her frozen aura. The white of snow emerged from under Freudia's feet and spread in all directions in the consumption of the nature while angry Frostfackel shot up from the icy ground like spears.

"Y-you really think you can scare with that?" surprised at Freudia's fortitude, Dolis managed to hide the uncertainty in her voice to a level of success, "Spirale, come back!"

The shuriken flew back to Dolis on a tree branch to the right of Freudia, who quickly raised her arm in that direction, ready to chant.

"Huh?"

Dolis, under the impact of the fast-spinning Spirale, lost her balance and fell from the tree branch. Right underneath her, the spear-sharp Frostfackel as if cheered in the upcoming doom of their prey. Freudia quickly started to retract her aura, cursing herself inside for her immaturity. She had outputted too much aura and the Frostfackel had become too strong for even herself to manipulate provided the short time interval.

Dolis's scream grew even more desperate as the seemingly last few seconds start to drift out of her clock of life. In a split second, a ball of light flew past Dolis's head. After the sound of a sharp crack of ice, Dolis landed safely, on her face.

Freudia opened her eyes and beheld the shocking scene; the icicle torch that not even she herself was confident in breaking was shattered into crystal-sized pieces. Among the falling shards of the icicle, Strudel showed herself. She was staring at Dolis, inspecting every aspect of her, and finally arriving at her conclusion;

"You are not round. But you are so cute and small "

Dolis revived herself from the face-smashing disaster that just took place and shouted right back, "DON'T CALL ME SMALL!" realizing that she was talking to a fairy, Dolis added with a flush, "You are smaller than me!"

"Looks like you are just fine, aren't you?" Freudia let out a breath, making sure that she wasn't noticed.

Turning towards Freudia, Dolis continued, "I just wasn't in the mood today, OK? But one day, I will grow up to be like Schirach-sama, mastering all the gracefulness and popularity."

"You won't get anywhere following the footstep of some flippantly random person like that."

"But you are certainly cute and small " Strudel cut in.

"STOP CALLING ME SMALL!" Freudia let out a sigh, complaining inside of the upcoming lengthy argument. But out of her expectation, Dolis simply gave her a last glance, murmured something to her and left.

_…_

_That was a lot of time wasted…_

"Freu! Found you " Strudel sang out to Freudia.

"You are still around?" Freudia broke herself off at mid-sentence and stared disbelievingly into the jewel embedded in the ring that Strudel wore around her neck.

"That's the elves' secret treasure? Lilli should have returned it to the Forest two month ago with Tia…"

"There are seventy-seven of them, hidden throughout the land." Strudel paused for a second and made a playful grimace, "actually there were originally seven-eight. But that's our secret "

"I see…"

_Fairies aren't beings of strong magical power… but she has a blurry aura of such strength… Ruu, what in the world are you?_ **Flamme des Zornes**

"Ahh, how unpleasant!"

Pamela whined out loud to Eifer on their way back to the church. The Rosenkreuz Imperial Training Hall shone under the bath of the lunar bless behind them, soaked in a façade of peace that the land has had no fortune in enjoying.

"Tsk…"

Eifer grunted while following Pamela through the marble-paved path lined by a sea of blooming flowers; angel's trumpets, moonflowers, night phlox…

_Rats. Soak in darkness and wither…_

Eifer's mind was occupied, as it always was. To her, flowers meant no beauty; the day meant no light. There was only everlasting darkness of the evening, the haunting coldness of the pieces of memories.

"Ya, Ai-chan, how did it go?"

Eifer looked up, with a scratching glare, "Don't ask me the unnecessary, Schirach."

"Oh mine, mine!" Schirach didn't let her knife-sharp smile leave her face, even for the slightest second, "seeing that you had something with Freudia, I was generous enough to give the chance. Why would you suppose that I want to waste such a fun fight?"

"Hmph! Or I could dig your grave for you right here. I am pretty sure you will get plenty of fun fights in the other world!" Eifer threatened, her tiny hands curling up into balls of fist inside of her thick gloves.

"And here they go again~"

"Ri…right. Schirach, Eifer, please stop… if you please…"

The shadows of seemingly two images casted themselves on the snow white ground; they were two girls dressed in black sister suits. One of the girls had a long piece of ponytails hanging from the left side of her head with a row of bandage covering her right eye while the other had her ponytail dangling off of her right side. Both tied their ponytails with an oversized white ribbon.

"Lecht is right," Pamela cut in, "there is no point in us arguing with ourselves. Schirach, have you done the job?"

"Yes, yes milady," Schirach narrowed her eyes as if babysitting Pamela. A look of annoyed embarrassment flashed across Pamela's face, "but the church really does seem to like waste time and energy, moving all the magi into some special colony… killing them all would be much faster…"

"Tha…that's such a scary thing to say! God will never allow something like that!" one of the sisters in black exclaimed shyly.

"As I thought, she's got the worst personality." the other sister commented.

"We are the prestigious Schwarzkreuz. This witch hunt is also for the purpose of capturing the evil magi dissidents and correcting their wrongs. All is for the peace and honor of the Holy Empire. Unnecessary bloodshed should be avoided whenever possible." Pamela said with authority.

"And isn't that some beautiful ideal you've got there?" Schirach was on the verge of laughing while Eifer showed nearly obvious contempt, adding to Pamela's embarrassment.

"Talking about unnecessary bloodshed…" a thought flashed across Pamela's mind, "why don't I just go destroy the Rosenkreuz!"

"…!?" Eifer reacted to the words as if she was stung, "the church never ordered anything like that!"

"Don't worry," become somewhat confident in herself, Pamela seemed to be quite happy to be able to relieve the embarrassment, "all is for the sake of proficiency. As long as I bring back results, the Pope will certainly understand my intention."

"But…" the shy sister was just about to retort when a sound of thunder disrupted her.

"Magic aura!?", Pamela murmured to herself, looking towards the mountain range off in the distance towards the church. Near one of the tallest peaks in the range, a crimson red glow caught everyone's eyes, "Looks like my first target is set, Here I go!"

Without waiting for anyone else to say anything, Pamela jumped off, leaving behind all the grunts and worries behind.

_I will prove to you all… that I, Pamela Arwig, am the justice!_

Following the wild howls of the volcano, Pamela found herself landing on a meteor-stricken land overran by boiling magma; the breaking dawn is as if dyed scarlet by this river from hell.

"What's… wrong with this place…" Pamela murmured to herself, "the empire army is close. At this rate, the magma will run right over them…"

"That's right!"

As if from the burning flame of the rising sun, a bomb fell right into the pond of magma in front of Pamela and detonated in an angry roar, sending magma flying through the air like arrows of flame. In a swift dash, Pamela dodged through the flying magma intact. By the time she readjusted her vision, a girl with a metal claw already stood right over the broken shards of the bomb shell.

"You are?" the girl asked like a ghost. Her head was down; she wasn't even looking at Pamela.

"Looks like the RKS doesn't know any manners at all, Zorne Sepperin." Pamela drew out Weiβsilber, which was shining like a devil's trident, "I am Pamela Arwig, the captain of the Schwarzkreuz."

"Schwarzkreuz… the black cross?"

"Let this be your ultimatum to…"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Zorne raised her head, shooting an burning glare at Pamela, "all you dogs of the church, I won't forgive you ever! _ZORNESBOMBE!_"

At the scream, Zorne sent a bursting amount of her aura into the air. Almost instantaneously, two rows of bombs lined Pamela's feet in her surprise. In a flash of scarlet light, tons of rocks were sent into the air. With the help of a magical platform, Pamela landed on one of the rocks blown up.

"What a madman! This won't even make a talk, !"

A small congregation of aura from underneath alerted Pamela to the existence of another bomb magically embedded into the piece of rock Pamela landed on and she jumped into the mid-air just in time before a dazzling explosion.

"Nmph… Sepperin!"

Zorne leaped into the mid-air, positioned herself to be facing Pamela and lightly toss a bomb behind her. At the sound of thunder, Zorne was sent flying towards Pamela with a heavy kick, which Pamela blocked with Weiβsilber.

"It's not over yet!"

Zorne fetched another bomb and detonated it zero-distance. Pamela was nearly caught off guard but managed to summon up a barrier trigram. The rush of the hot air nevertheless pushed Pamela down and sank her deep into the group. Pamela let out a muffled yell of pain. When she opened her eyes again, Zorne was standing over her, the burning sun, now glaring halfway over the mountain range extending to the distance, fostered a dark silhouette on Zorne's forehead.

"Your forehead… is bleeding?" the words came out more like a question than intended.

"This thing is no comparison to what the church put my father through! It's over, Pamela Arwig." Zorne's sliver claw slowly turned burning red as she lifts it, aiming at Pamela.

_The church? What nonsense._ Injecting all her aura into the sword, Pamela brought the blade up with all her strength.

"_ZORNESBOMBE!_"

"_WEIβSILBER!_"

The two aura clashed head-on, its impact as if ripping the sky…

**Die Weiβe Wϋste**

The world is dyed purely white.

"Waa… so white!"

Ruu reached out her hands and a piece of snow flake gently fell on her palms.

"It's cold~… although snow is pretty, but it's freezing~"

"It's time to go, Strudel. We've already wasted enough time."

The blizzard grew more violent the farther Freudia went, like a dark foreboding of something ahead. The morning sun looked pale and powerless in the seemingly endless desert of snow.

"Yes, yes " Strudel sang out, "But why are we hurrying?"

"Why? Of course so that I can get to Tia as soon as possible."

"Tia?"

"One of my closest friend. She was abducted by the Schwarzkreuz." Freudia didn't know how to feel at the time; she was embarrassed to call Tia her closest friend out loud while Tia's abduction made her worry.

"Ahh~ so that's why you were in such a hurry, to rescue a friend?"

"Right. Tia taught me that; to always help a friend and to never give up."

"Freu, so kind " Strudel smiled.

"!?"

Freudia stopped. The blizzard suddenly grew monstrous, pouring down as if the sky was falling down. Then, slowly thawing away, an aura revealed itself.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Freudia."

"Liebea?" Freudia recognized the figure standing in front of her in the snow; curly pink hair draping over her bare shoulder with a loosely fit green dress, "aren't you supposed to be guarding the fugitive magi with Kahl? Plus, your magic power should be weak in such a blizzard."

Strudel came out from behind Freu, "say~ the blizzard is cold, could you stop the blizzard ?"

"Back down, Strudel. Do not approach that person."

"?"

"The church is so morbid. She looks exactly like Liebea, but nevertheless is a fake, like Tia has gone through before."

" Good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon, Ms. Freudia, good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon…" Liebea's arms started to fling up and down, colors faded from her eyes. With a twist of her feet, she came flying towards Strudel. A ghost of the smile that she was intended to imitate lingered on her face.

"_Eisschwert!_"

"Freu?"

Liebea fell past Strudel and right into the ground; sending snowflakes flying around her.

"Waa~" Strudel stared at the figure on the ground with curiosity; Liebea is wrapped in a coffin of ice. Soon, deformation started and the figure dissolved into a pile of grey dusts that dissipated into the thin air with the shattering of the ice coffin.

"Let this be a lesson to you on RKS's real power, and the fact that Liebea's magical attribute does not get along with mine, Ms. Fake." Freudia, with her back towards the coffin, said with her eyes closed. Her voice was droned by the sound of blizzard around her, which seemed to be crying in the funeral of a close friend.

"Freu is awesome! How did you know that person was fake?"

"There are always elements in a real living person that cannot be imitated, even though a living person was probably sacrificed."

"Oh… oh…" Strudel nodded.

"On top of which, Liebea is a kid who can only work around her brother, to the point where 'brother' is her most said word. It is utterly impossible for this Liebea to leave her brother on her own."

"Just like Freu and Tia-chan?"

Strudel's words brought Freudia to flush so much that it was almost recognizable in the snow, "I… I don't say 'Tia' that much at all…"

Freudia stared at the ground in embarrassment. Involuntarily, the shattered ice coffin came into her sight. A trace of sadness flashed across Freudia's expression.

" Freu, you held back for a second, didn't you?"

"…"

For just a short moment, the atmosphere around Freudia seemed to be filled with a different magical aura; one soaked in hatred and sadness that sublimed into a warm and loving aura like the real Liebea's.

"Good night. This aura will certainly protect you from the bitterness of the cold…" Freudia murmured.

"Freu?"

"No, nothing. Let's go, Strudel." Freudia flew off. Strudel stopped for a second and looked at the same spot Freudia was staring; a smile soon bloomed on her face.

"Okay " Strudel flew off after Freudia.

Lying on top of each of the thousands of shards of the ice coffin, crystalline ice flowers stood upright, blooming in their most grace.

**Tränen Der Verzweiflung**

Pamela dashed through the palace floating above the massive body of water. The rage of the scarlet sky earlier in the day faded but a deep blue seemed to seep in.

Stopping on the edge of what seems to be a balcony of some grand palace that used to extend over the grace of the land but now only stood so helplessly drowned, Pamela drew out her sword and wrought it down on the balcony ground.

The water flew quietly before Pamela with a color of deep sorrow like the droplets of a shut soul. The dust particles of the balcony flew up into the sky, only to drown in the sorrow of the water eventually.

_How unpleasant…_Pamela's train of thoughts is dominated by that look; one that wouldn't leave Pamela alone no matter how much she tried, "isn't this as if I am the bad one…"

"Damn it! I was so close!"

Zorne, laying on the ground, yelled into the sky burned red by the sun and the volcano. Pamela stood over Zorne, Weiβsilber taking on the devilish scarlet of the dawn.

"That's quite some strength for a RKS member, if only you didn't let loose in the end." Pamela let of a relief she had been holding since the start of the fight; she refused the temptation to think about what would have happened if Zorne did not "let loose".

"Shut it…" Zorne managed to bring herself up to a sitting position, "unlike you, we the RKS aren't devils who could kill without blinking!"

"Nonsense. Who is it just a moment ago that intended to drown a whole army of people in lava?" Pamela, not convinced at all, came right back at Zorne. To her bewilderment, Zorne seemed death-stricken. A black ring of tiredness started to eat away at her eyes while despair warpped around her expression.

"Father…"

Pamela perceived that she heard something from Zorne. Just about when she wanted to sheath her sword, Zorne stood up with her face veiled by her crimson hair. Pamela brought up Weiβsilber defensively to her chest.

"We…" Zorne said slowly. Pamela, not wanting to lower her guard, listened tentatively, "we are different from you!" Zorne lifted up her head and, for the first time since they met, stared right into Pamela's eyes, and with such resolution that surprised Pamela. Two beads of translucent jewel rolled down Zorne's cheek, revealing two transparent but deep trails of tear.

As if Pamela didn't hear her the first time, Zorne reiterated herself with even greater fortitude, "We RKS have our own pride, different from you Schwarzkreuz and the church. Even though we each have our own ways, we will show you eventually… our justice."

Zorne raised her head, her mind flying off to somewhere distant in the sky that seemed unreachable for everyone else. Then, as if Pamela no longer existed, Zorne flushed a little with the most serene smile that Pamela had seen;

"Father, watch me. I won't cry anymore…"

imaginary wings were growing out of Zorne's shoulder. Silhouette of a person conjured from the sunlight and shielded Zorne from the world. Zorne closed her eyes and let the last tear fall. Just before she left, she looked once more at Pamela, "You… are such a pitiful being…"

Pamela walked into the drowned palace. The pillars supporting the roof carved with naked seraphs were shining in the sunlight that soaked into the room Pamela was in. A thin layer of water deposited on the floor; the room was large like an arena.

"Come out, or are all RKS members only capable of manners like this?"

A killing instant suddenly rushed into the air and a whirlpool of water came flying towards Pamela. Drawing her sword, Pamela slashed the whirlpool in half.

"You seriously think you can take me down with something like that?"

"It will be a bother if you get me wrong." A girl showed herself in front of Pamela. She wore a competition swimsuit the color of deep sorrow; a white shell was attached to the right side of her head as a hairpin, "that was only for the sake of waking you up."

"Trauare Wrede, wielder of the Chaos Spear Leviathan."

"You know don't you?" the water from floor flew up to Trauare's hand and took the shape of a long spear across Trauare's face. Daggers seemed to fly out of her furrowed eyebrows and a green V-shaped blade emerged from the water. With one fling of her arm, Trauare brought Leviathan spinning around her with dazzling dexterity, finally cracking into the floor right next to her.

"What is it that I understood wrong?" Pamela inquired.

"Pamela Arwig, captain of the Schwarzkreuz. You saved me a lot of time going in search of you myself; I can chop you up right now and sink you in this sea." Trauare said with her usual bored expression.

"Back at you. The RKS who disturbs the peace of the empire, I shall defeat you no matter what!" Pamela, preparing herself for the upcoming fight, pushed the look that Zorne left her to the back of her head.

"The mission of RKS, peace of empire; all that junk meant nothing to me. But the felony of hurting my friend, you shall pay it back with blood!" Trauare narrowed her eyes; the atmosphere grew ten times as heavy.

"_Klageharnisch!_"

The floor beneath Pamela's feet started to shake. Pamela jumped out just in time before a pillar of water shot up and smashed into the roof with an angry roar.

"Take this!" spinning Leviathan in her hand, another pillar of water shot out from the spear towards Pamela. "Naïve!" Pamela brought Weiβsilber down on the top of the column of water and, pushing down, jumped above Trauare. Injecting her aura into the air, Pamela sent her sword pressure slashing towards Trauare. A third pillar of water flew up around Trauare, diverting the pressure of Weiβsilber into the floor, sending smashed rocks flying in all directions.

Pamela made a round flip in the air and landed her feet. Trauare came propelling herself out of the water at Pamela before Pamela could fully gain her balance; a raging barrage of melee attacks ensued, ending in a stalemate where Trauare pressing her Leviathon on Pamela.

"It's over. Drown! In the depth of water." Immobilizing Pamela, Trauare sent a bulk of her aura into the air around. Water burst out from the thin air and soaked the two.

_This is bad… Weiβsilber,_ _get me out of here!_

"!?"

Trauare back away from Pamela before Pamela flung Weiβsilber smashing down into a huge wave of crimson-burning sword pressure that came chasing after Trauare. Wielding Leviathan across her chest, Trauare's aura blocked the pressure.

"Too slow!" Before Trauare had the time to worry, Pamela was flying across a few meters behind her.

"_Weiβsilber!"_

Pamela sent another wave of sword pressure accelerating towards Trauare. Just then, a third aura suddenly appeared in the air. A smile broke out over Trauare's face and, to Pamela's surprise, Trauare withdrew Leviathan and backed off. With the opposing force of Leviathan now gone, the first pressure wave came propelling towards Trauare, who is now sandwiched.

"Moron!" Pamela shouted in a whisper, an expression of worry spread across her face.

"_Zornesharnisch!_" the voice came flying out of Pamela's deathly attacks.

This time, a blazing crimson pillar of fire flew up around Trauare while Zorne teleported herself right next to Trauare.

"Zorne, you came to help!" Trauare smiled warmly.

"No way. I just happen to come by…" realizing their plight, Zorne controlled her embarrassment, "it's not the time for that. Although I don't want to say this, she's quite strong. We have to back off!"

"Well, if you say so. This thing is no match against us!"

With her right hand crossing Zorne's left hand, Trauare raised Leviathan and Zorne raised her metal arm. The aura of desperation merged with the aura of rage and the blazing pillar fired up in much increased violence, dissipating the two waves of pressure of Weiβsilber.

Pamela was still squatting several meters since she fired her last shot. The image of the blaze as if scorching itself into her head.

"How pretty…" Pamela immediately regretted after she said it and watched her attacks die in the overwhelming dominance of their enemy. Soon, the roof started to shake and came falling down. Pamela, alerted to the situation, just caught the time to defend herself. The heavy rooftop brought an earthquake around the three, sending water trembling beneath the surface of the ground now half cracked. In the dust remains of the palace, Pamela found herself facing Trauare and Zorne, who were also looking at her.

_That aura… they are quite good at combination attacks. _

The killing instinct faded from the air as both parties lost their will to fight.

"Just this time." Pamela said while sheathing Weiβsilber.

"That's my line." Trauare said with the same bored expression before the fight, "I will definitely have this debt returned." With that, Trauare and Zorne left the palace.

Pamela stood alone in the ruins of the palace. The sun, now more than halfway across its daily journey, bathed down on Pamela with paleness.

_"But the felony of hurting my friend, you shall pay it back with blood!"_ Pamela came to think of Trauare's words. Arriving at her conclusion, she murmured to herself;

"RKS is the disturbance of the empire's peace. They are the evil ones…"

The idea of a friend coming to the rescue seemed like it would take a long while for Pamela to assimilate.

**Fliegel! Lufteste Sleipnir**

"Freu, something is floating up!?"

"Sky Fortress Sleipnir… Let's hurry Strudel. We have to get away from here befo…"

Before Freudia could finish, a giant shot of Lustatem flew down from the fortress and grinded into the terrain seemingly in front of the church behind a distant mountain. A trembling impact, carrying the muffled screams of thousands, reached Freudia and Strudel a few seconds later.

"Freu?"

Freudia closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.…

Freudia has heard a lot time ago, that the sky lives by a separate reality than the ground.

_Never thought it could be this different…_

The sun as if scorched the taint spots out of the sky. The fortress floated freely above the ocean of clouds that segregated the lower world from the heaven. Flocks of transparent spirits glimmered and frolicked in their heavenly dance around the sky fortress.

"Ah, Freu look! They are shining!" Strudel called out to Freudia, "I wonder if I could shine like that, too…"

"Strudel, we are not here to play. We have to get to Tia fast."

"Ehehe "

The transparent creatures circled above Freudia and Strudel. Looking from below, they took on the endless blue of the sky; their beings looked as broad as the boundary of the sky.

"Say, say, Freu!"

"What is it this time?"

"How does Freu look at Tia-chan?" Strudel put on a mischievous grimace at Freudia's blush. Pure curiosity seemed to dominate her expression, but there seemed to be something else that couldn't quite be told.

"T-tia was my childhood friend. She also taught me a lot of things… and… and…"

"Freu and Tia-chan are friends so Freu like Tia-chan?"

"T-that… of… of course…" Freudia's voice dropped below a whisper as she looked away, "a-are you done asking questions? Let's go."

"Ye~~s " Strudel followed Freudia as she flew off towards the interior of the fortress, her expression unreadable.

The interior of fortress was embellished with the same type of gothic statue as in the imperial training hall. Two rows of giant pillars lined the way to a roofed room in the center of which a single status of a winged unicorn stood erect, its heading pointing towards the distant sky through the top roof beams.

Past the room, a similar boulevard led to an area closed off by high walls. The middle section was linked by a series of descending and raising stair steps in an arena format.

"…"

On the other side of stairs, there was a platform holding up a large, sapphire orb; the orb shimmered in the sunlight and glowed from within.

"The Heroine of Justice, Bluste is here!" a girl with orange jumped down from the sky. She had a pair of wind goggles and two pairs of toy devil wings attached to her swimsuit-looking attire.

"Waa, so cool " Strudel complimented innocently.

"Evil snowwoman, how dare you show yourself in front of me! I will best you with the ultimate technique of justice, Lustatem. Prepare yourself!" the girl exclaimed with a competitive smile.

"So it was you after all who put the sky fortress back in operation, Luste?" Freudia asked the obvious as a slight headache began to crawl up her brain.

"Alas alas! I am Bluste, not Luste!"the heroine of justice looked bewildered.

"Weren't you asked by Sichte to help Grolla? Go back to the Count's castle now." Freudia said. But Luste's naivety only made it seem like a mother trying to coax a disobedient child.

"Bu~buuu! I still want to pla- I mean, heroine is very busy!"

Closing her eyes again, Freudia murmured to herself, "this is all because Tia spoiled her too much…"

"She is so energetic " Strudel murmured back.

"ANYWAY!" as if forgetting all her heroine game, Luste started to soak the space around her in her aura. The air around her lit up in a light orange steam while the transparent spirits started to gather around in a cheerful round of waltz, "all evils will be annihilated! Take this!"

Two blocks of air suddenly condensed from the orange steam around Luste and shot towards Freudia from the top and bottom. Freudia took a spin to her right and floated up; the two blocks clumsily flew past her. Raising both her arms to her shoulder length, Freudia's frozen aura began to fill the entire sky. Soon, cleansing snowflakes fell from the sky, soaking everything in a layer of white.

"Freu, so pretty!"

"You are good, evil snowwoman! Then how about this!"

Luste jumped into the midair. The steam of orange aura intensifying around her, "Ultimate technique stage 2, PROMINENCE!"

Air blocks condensed around Luste in dozens and simultaneously started to shoot towards Freudia.

"_Kopiekreisel!_"

Ice clones of Freudia jumped out from their main body like ice images and started to dance in the rain of Luste's attacks, which flew back and bombarded the fortress ground.

"That is so cheap!" Luste whined.

"Are you done playing?" the voice came from behind and Luste and caught her by surprise. She turned back quickly, only to be greeted by a knock on the head by Freudia.

"Awww… I lost…"

"So Freu is the real hero!" Strudel chanted in.

"At least make it a heroine…"

Luste let out of deep sigh with a pouted mouth, "but I am not going back to the castle! That's not heroine-like at all!"

_What is kid…_ "Listen to this Luste," Freudia imagined Tia for a second and put on her best coaxing tone, "the Count's castle is now being invaded by the evil church armies and the people in the castle are asking for help. Isn't it more like a heroine to go popping up in front of people in need in the most dire situation and help?"

"Ohhhhh!" Luste's expression suddenly became a lot of enthusiastic, "I see! I will head towards the count's castle right now!" with that, Luste left in a hurry, leaving Freudia blushing in the face for saying what she wouldn't usually say.

Strudel flew to Freudia's side, "Say, Freu, is the count's castle in a big pinch right now?"

Freudia shook off her headache and responded nonchalantly, "how so? I only see a large-size headache coming the way of the church armies."

Freudia and Strudel took off, along with the flocks of spirits. The sun was on the second half of its journey of the day. The church was still in the distant…

So was Freudia's mind.

**Reencounter des Blutes**

A hollow roar vacuumed through the mountain-side dungeon, carrying the resentment and regrets of the dead.

"What a morbid dimension…" Pamela commented as she stepped through the space that was conjured by a strong magic aura which she came to investigate after leaving the palace of Poseidon. A rotten smell of corpse as if started to waft over the place.

A narrow pathway lined with bars glowed eerily in front of Pamela; there didn't seem to be another way out of the dungeon. Pamela stepped into the path. Suddenly, a pile of white skulls and skeletons emerged behind the bars and a vault shut Pamela off from behind; blood was dripping from down from the ceiling onto the skulls, looking as if the dead are devouring blood.

"Eyah!" Pamela let off a short squeak before she gathered enough courage to look up again. The smell was real, and the glowing bars were a jail between which thousands died.

"What is up with this place?" Pamela's voice is trembling out of a fear that she doesn't want to acknowledge. Forcing her legs into motion, Pamela dashed through the jails under the purple-glowing glares of the skulls while covering her ears. A few pieces of rocks fell from the cracked ceiling of the dungeon and hit the ground, sending off a creepy _kack kack_ sound resonating through the dungeon.

Eventually, Pamela arrived at a larger dungeon that was pitch dark. Judging by the feeling under her feet, Pamela could tell that the path is leading up to somewhere. Just then, a crumbling noise came from behind her and the floor beneath her started to shake.

"!?" Pamela drew out her sword and dashed forward. A faint source of light seemed to appear to the left of her. Pamela aimed at it, "_Weiβsilber!_" and jumped out following the pieces of crusts that she blew off. The dungeon collapsed behind her with the same hollow sound.

"That was dangero…" Pamela trailed off as she looked up. The cadaverous atmosphere trapped the dimension in gloom as blood drizzled down from the murky black sky, dying the ground red. Pamela stopped and let the blood roll off her armor; the blood carried thousands of voices in them:

_We hate… give us back our life… why us… help… no please…_

_…_

_CHURCH!_

The scream from the depth of the dead souls surprised Pamela.

_Church? What are these souls talking about… don't tell me it's another one of those RKS nonsense of church persecution; I've had enough for the day…_

But Pamela also knew; she knew that the souls didn't lie. Pushing away her doubts, Pamela concentrated on seeking the source of resentment that she felt; one that is deeper than souls.

The traces of aura took Pamela past columns and columns of statues, all of which had as if faces of agony carved into them one above another. Eventually, among a dozen of such pillars, Pamela arrived behind of a purple-haired girl clad in bloody armor. A single piece of cloth wrapped around her waist, also blood-stained. In her right hand, a long sword whose blade was sharp enough to be seen glowing stabbed into the ground where a pool of dead souls gathered in pain and slowly dissipated.

"Swordswoman Grolla Seyfarth, if I am not mistaken?" Pamela raised her morale and called out. The girl turned around slowly with her head down. The bloody rain gathered behind her and, slowly, the form of a skeleton wielding a body-sized scythe appeared among the droplets of blood. The girl looked up at Pamela; her eyes were glowing violet just like the skulls that Pamela saw down in the dungeon.

"You are?" Grolla demanded coldly.

"Pamela Arwig, the captain of the proud Schwarz of the church." Pamela replied. Her confidence seemed to return from her words.

"Schwarzkreuz?!" Grolla's voice grew full of resentment, "how understanding it is of you to come give me your neck!"

The sword in Grolla's hand was dyed red suddenly, as if preparing itself for a feast. Pamela looked at the sword and immediately recognized it, "Devil's Sword Grollschwert, parallel in name with my Holy Sword Weiβsilber, I wanted to have this match so long ago!" a wave of fighting spirit surged in Pamela's voice.

In Grolla's hand, Grollschwert throbbed violently. "the sword is calling… a response to your sword?"

"It was said that the primeval haunted spirits that were defeated by the holy sword resided in that blade of yours. Looks like that is not just a rumor." Pamela didn't hide the proud from her face; against Grolla she definitely sounded more like justice.

"A holy sword used to slay the powerless only to be thrown away at the end? Laughable." Grolla's voice started to be distorted and Pamela realized it; Grolla's voice was synchronizing with that of Raimond Seyfarth, the shadowy skeleton behind Grolla which she could just barely recognize.

"The church is protecting the peace of the land," not wanting to lose in cause, Pamela retorted, "the RKS who's ruining the church's effort is the bad one!"

_SILENCE!_ Grolla's voice is now nothing but a deathly hollow roar haunting the place, _how dare a dog of the church like you bark like such! You and that holy sword of yours can all drown in this sea of blood!_

_Possessed by the devil's sword!?_ Pamela wondered to herself for a split second, during which Grolla already reached face-to-face with Pamela.

_ENGRAVE!_ Grolla roared as she brought down Grollschwert from her top left, aimed at Pamela's chest. Drawing Weiβsilber in front of her, Pamela blocked the attack just in time. The blade of Weiβsilber screamed under that of Grollschwert as the latter slices against the body of the former. Pamela forced a lift-up of her sword while Grollschwert was reaching the bottom of Grolla's height and came back to Grolla in a vertical cut aimed at Grolla's head. Quite adroit, Grolla threw up Grollschwert with her left hand, dodged Pamela's attack with a jump and caught Grollschwert in the midair. Adding her height above the ground in her attack, Grolla injected a huge amount of aura into her sword before bringing it down once again at Pamela, locking her in a defensive position.

Landing on the ground, Grolla twisted her sword a little and came loose from the deadlock and quickly brought Grollschwert into a devastating horizontal slash. Pamela jumped backwards in a flip, dodging Grollschwert's sword pressure.

"Take this!" while in mid-air, Pamela took an aim at Grolla with Weiβsilber, sending three shocking waves propelling towards her. Grolla murdered the wave with an angry cut and dashed at Pamela.

"!?"

Surprised at how easily Grolla evaded her attacks, Pamela didn't have enough time to readjust herself and was soon dominated by a series of violently unorganized sword slashes from Grolla. Grolla's eyes grew more and more purple as Raimond's voice intensified;

_KILL HER… KILL THE GIRL WITH THE HOLY SWORD!_

As if aching in head, Grolla brought down one heavy sword blow that forced Pamela to back off.

"GUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A!" leaping into the mid-air, Grolla's voice once again synchronizing with the ghosts;

_TRUE ART UNLEASHED! GROLL~SCHWERT!_

Multi-directional sword pressure flew out from around Grolla; glowing brightly purple, the thrash sound that the pressure made as it sliced across the air resembled much that cried by an anguishing soul. The waves zigzagged down towards Pamela and one hit head-on with Weiβsilber, pushing Pamela all the way into one of the pillars behind her.

"Arh!" Pamela squealed. A thin wound opened on her left arm and blood started to ooze out. When she opened her eyes again, Grolla was walking towards her. Raimond's ghost, holding his scythe, slowly rose behind Grolla. Grolla's right arm was draped in a cloth of blood.

_She is fighting without regards to her life… looks like I will have to take care of Raimond's soul first_. Closing her eyes, _Weiβsilber, give us power…_

Then, everything became slow motion for Pamela.

_MORE… BLEEEEED MOOOOOOOOOOOREEEE!_

Grolla screamed; the bloody Grollschwert came slicing down through the dimension. A platform opened the moment before Grollschwert reached Pamela's neck that teleported Pamela behind Grolla, face-to-face with Raimond.

_DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!_

Raimond bellowed, waving his scythe towards Pamela.

"Too slow!" Pamela, already in the attacking position, aimed at Raimond and Grolla behind him, "_Weiβsilber!_"

_AARRRRrrrr_"rrrgghhhhh!" Grolla's voice disintegrated from that of Raimond while Weiβsilber blew her back, landing her on her back.

"I… what am I…?" the violet in Grolla's eyes faded; the left half of her armor was already shattered and the pieces came falling off like the rain of blood from the sky.

"Looks like it's just the destiny that the devil's sword perishes at the holy sword!" Pamela claimed triumphantly at Grolla.

Remembering the situation, Grolla managed to stand herself up. The wound on her arm made her groan a stifled groan, "this is the end? But for comrades… I can't fall yet…"

Looking up at Pamela, "Damn it! Pamela Arwig, I shall not forget this resentment!"

With that, Grolla left. The deathly atmosphere slowly dissolved and Pamela found herself standing under a rising moon dressed in a silky layer of cloud.

_Comrades? This girl also says the same… RosenkreuzStilette…_

**Den Seppy Ruinen**

"I won't let you take away Mister Zeppy!"

Schwer covers her head and wrapped her hands around the white squid on top of her milky cat suit. Dark particles started to appear out of the thin air and gathered into bundles and, soon, formed an army of shuriken-shaped shields that orbited rapidly around their conjurer.

Freudia gave Strudel a look; Strudel rubbed her own cheek with her finger and gave a mischievously laugh.

"…!?"

Freudia lifted her arm and an ice mirror erected itself in front of the advancing shuriken; the blades carved into the ice surface while some others deflected and fell off.

"Strudel, take care of yourself; I can't guarantee your safety in Geisterwand."

"Yes-yes, not to worry "

The ice mirror shattered under the bombarding pressure of Geisterwand. Strudel danced among the rain of attacks like a blue firefly among the elapsing black time. Freudia flew forward towards Schwer, Geisterwand blades grazing past her.

"Schwer, open your eyes!"

"No! Just leave us alone already!"

Zeppy, out of Schwer's expectation, jumped towards Freudia; his head sharp like a drill.

"Mister Zeppy…" Freudia stepped one step aside and Zeppy flew right past, "alright, Mister Zeppy, let's do this together."

Zeppy stopped himself in the mid-air and reverted back towards Freudia with such speed that matches Schwer's Geisterwand.

"_Schneekristal!_"

Summoning her own snowy minions, Freudia dashed towards Schwer but Zeppy arrived before her.

"Needle!"

Schwer's dark particles formed a metallic helmet on Zeppy, who charged forward in a barrage of drills.

"… _fackel!_" Freudia threw an ice crystal beneath Schwer's feet. Schwer jumped backwards, taking Zeppy with her, to dodge the ice torch which suddenly jutted up from the ground. However, Freudia already teleported behind her.

Then, things went in slow motion for Schwer; sensing Freudia's magic from behind her, Schwer immediately summon her dark particles to form a crushing attack behind her. However, Zeppy already jumped towards the same direction and was sandwiched.

"MISTER ZEPPY!"

Schwer screamed at the top of her lung while putting all her remaining aura into halting herself. Zeppy let out a few squeaks; he didn't sound sad…

Just then, color started to fade from Freudia's figure which burst in a snowy shine. Seconds later, Schwer on landed on the ground; an ice crystal embodying a frolicking Zeppy descended slowly from above her and landed on Schwer's extended hands; the ice thawed slowly and Zeppy danced merrily on her hands.

"Mister Zeppy…" Schwer's voice trailed away in a teary tone after she gladly pulled Zeppy into her hug.

"Freudia…?" Zeppy squeaked a few times, as if explaining the situation to Schwer. When Zeppy was seemingly done, Schwer stood up, "Freudia… thank you, for protecting Mister Zeppy."

"You still have a far way to go, it looks like. But disregarding that, why did you just do that?"

Schwer paused for a second and murmured "birthday".

"A-again? Didn't all of us celebrate your birthday last time? Although it was a bit late…"

"No, not mine. Tia's… Tia's birthday is coming up soon, so I went in town to talk to everyone about a party. But the town was empty…" Schwer's tone began to fill with a sadness, "everyone just wanted to exclude me and host a party on your own, didn't you!"

Freudia closed her eyes in her usual habit, "I am getting a headache…"

"After all… after all I only have Mister Zeppy…"

"Listen to me, Schwer," Freudia cut in, "during the period of time when you were not in Zuvenberg, the church has launched a Witch Hunt and everyone went to the front line."

"I-is that so…" Schwer's expression cleared up; Zeppy squeaked a few times again.

"Thus stop with your misunderstanding, it's troublesome."

"…"

"… but the idea of a birthday party is not bad. After I bring Tia back, let's all sit and plan something out, OK?"

A rainbow seemed to break out over Schwer's expression. Not hiding her blush, Schwer nodded slightly and left with Zeppy.

Freudia watched Schwer take off.

"Ruu, really wanted to rub the mouth of Mr. Squid… but Ruu didn't get in the way, right?"

"Right, nicely done, Strudel." Freudia said as Strudel descended from the sky.

"Say, say, can Ruu be included in the birthday party celebration for Tia-chan as well?"

"If you'd like."

Fondness filled Strudel's expression, "Freu, so kind "

Freudia, without responding, left for the church again.

"Such data… is this really necessary…" Strudel murmured to herself and followed after Freudia.

The Egyptian style ruin that Schwer's aura generated as a playground darkens out. The graffiti-like statues that lined the walls glowed eerily as an ephemeral, ominous laughter filled the empty space.

**Parallele Linien**

By the time the deathly atmosphere dissolved around Pamela, the lunar blossom was already at its full bloom. Pamela adjusted her hair a bit in the nightly breeze as she watched the misty cloud above her hand gently wrapped around their princess, compared to whom, the evening sky was only a half-filled canvas blessed with her sacred hue.

The city of Zuvenberg was as if reflected onto the moon as a whole and seemingly floated in the sky. "What a waste for such a beauteous full moon…" Pamela soliloquized as she slowly advanced towards the source of an aura coming from the top of a clock tower that stood erect. Pamela could nearly feel the distinctiveness of this aura; the elapsing flow of time was as if engraved into it.

The interior of the clock tower was just as well immersed in the serene smile of Artemis. An intricate fiber of intertwining gears waltzed around Pamela as she ascended the stairs; the eternity of time deeply reverberating around. Finally, a narrow staircase led Pamela onto an open-air corridor under the night sky. The huge clock stood besides the corridor, facing the moon on the other side.

"Mine, mine, isn't tonight just packed with visitors?"

Pamela looked up to the voice; a girl was standing on one of the huge arms of the clock. The lunar light shone on her figure, revealing her mid-long emerald hair. Her white blouse was half torn, showing the black lace of her garment inside. Dusts covered her body and a few traces of wounds lined her left thigh and right shoulder.

"Sichte Meister, captain of the RKS Special Operation unit, am I correct?"

"Are you Schwarzkreuz?" Sichte jumped down from the arm and landed in front of Pamela. She faced Pamela front-on, as if preparing her best to block off Pamela from what was behind her.

"Correct. I am Pamela Arwig, captain of Schwarzkreuz." Pamela, as always, put on her best pride, even though half of which might only be fabricated façade.

"Mine, a captain coming to the front line… well, looks like I can't say things other people, huh?" Sichte laughed her cool-natured, yet somewhat bitter laugh.

Pamela slighted grunted, "By the way, that's quite some appearance for you, totally ragged." Relentlessly mixing acidity into her tone, Pamela mocked, "or should I say that perfectly fits the head of some organization that is only good for pulling together witches for evil?"

However, the acidity didn't wear off on Sichte's cool nature as she simply gave a crisp giggle, "Isn't this so discourteous of me; thanks to the persecution of the church, I had some quite gruesome childhood, you see… at this point in time, I simply can't bring myself to care that much about clothing anymore."

"Persecution of the church?" the atmosphere around Pamela is suddenly drenched in a smell of arsenal as she started to produce whirlpools of her aura, embodying the whole area, "the fault resides in peace-disturbing witches like you, it only serves you right!"

The cool smile vanished from Sichte's expression as she sensed the solemn seriousness, "It's true that our way wasn't the best at all. But that doesn't mean we think the church is any better, especially if the goal of the church is to annihilate the magi from this land."

"The witch hunt was launched for the sake of capturing rebelling dissidents among the magi and leading them onto an upright path of life, absolutely not for some violent genocide!"

A smile returned to Sichte's expression; this time, of a different nature that immediately offended Pamela, like she was earlier in this fateful day, "I couldn't bring myself to believing that at all. Isn't that just what you were told with?"

"Are you insulting the Pope? That is unforgivable!" Pamela's belligerency has reached its climax, "Sichte Meister! I'll let you taste the justice of my sword!"

"Justice huh…" Sichte slowly pulled off her knifes from seemingly nowhere, "I wonder how the Count would react to that if he were hearing this."

"Prepare yourself!" Pamela let Sichte finish her last words and charged forward as she wields her sword in hand, ready to slash through the truth. What greeted her, to her surprise, was an immense dagger-sharp aura from Sichte. Pamela resisted but was still instantly forced to fall down to her knees.

_"It's futile. Your magic attribute is weak against mine."_

"M-magic?" a wave of anger flooded Pamela's brain, "stop kidding me! This power is no lowly 'magic' characteristic of you witches; this power is the holy 'miracle' granted to us Schwarzkreuz by God for the sake of combating you!"

"_A very handy way of thinking, isn't it. Sorry, but I don't have that much time to spend in fighting with you. Allow me to finish this quickly._"

The words blended together and all came rushing into Pamela's brain; Pamela couldn't remember when she heard those words, or even, whether those words weren't just some hallucination. In a blink of eye, Pamela caught the still image of five daggers flying towards her. Tilting her head sideways out of reflex, the blades missed Pamela's cheek by a hair bit.

"_Remarkable reflex, but it's not making any point!_"

Sichte suddenly vanished from in front of Pamela; her bulk of aura suddenly reappeared from behind. A cage of knives shrouded Pamela from every direction.

_I will be done for at this rate…_

Forcing pressure into Weiβsilber, Pamela pushed the dagger-sharp aura away from her and dashed towards Sichte, blowing the flying daggers away.

However, Sichte disappeared again.

"_Berserk and bloom!_"

Another envelope of daggers encircled Pamela again, forcing her into a defensive position.

_This is endless…_

"_Not yet! Zweiteblüte!_"

Pamela was seemingly sealed away in a silvery dimension lined by dagger; she didn't even know what attacks her opponent launched. Weiβsilber throbbed violently in her hands, it seemed to convey something to its owner. Pamela disregarded the bother and poured her aura into the sword and flung it across above her head.

"HAAAA!"

A shock wave flew into the shrinking hemisphere of knives and blew an opening through the top. Pamela seized the chance to jump out while the knives collided in a shamble beneath her.

"That was slow."

Sichte's voice came from above; Pamela looked up and saw a huge smoldering boulder be pushed down towards her. Seeing no other choice, Pamela drove her sword into the juggernaut and an explosion quickly ensued. Among the shattered pieces, Sichte came flying down, knife in hand, in a position ready to attack while Pamela had yet enough time to retract her sword into an attacking position.

"Witches… _how could I possibly allow myself to be beaten by a witch!_"

Pamela's determination flared up in a crimson encompassing ambiance.

"I'll let you see all I got!" injecting all her emerald-glittering aura into the blade of her knife, Sichte brought herself down at full strength. The clash bred a vortex of intertwining aura. Induced by the existence in Sichte's aura, the time flow carved in the arms of the clock tower seemed to be lost in Chronos' hands as they gradually slowed to a stop, leaving a seemingly still image of Pamela and Sichte hanging in the mid-air.

In the next split second, the lunar silhouettes of the figures regained their motion again; Pamela soared into the sky as Sichte fell into the ground with a muffled cry.

"In front of Schwarzkreuz, there is no enemy!" Pamela landed and turned around, Weißsilber blazing in her hand. Pointing the blade at her enemy, Pamela's voice dropped into a solemn death call, "Sichte Meister, prepare yourself."

Pamela posed for a fraction of a second and charged forward towards Sichte, who was still lying on the ground, immobile.

"Man, what a troublesome Ms. Captain!"

A pillar of fire that Pamela could clearly recall erected itself before Pamela's way of advance. Stepping out from the pillar, Trauare and Zorne stood in front of Sichte, hoisting Leviathan and the metal arm, respectively, in front of their bodies as if using them as shields.

"Trauare… Zorne…" Sichte managed barely.

"What are we going to do, Trau? If we join forces…" Zorne, turning slightly sideways towards Trauare while keeping her focus on Pamela, whispered.

"We are retreating, Zorne. There's no way we could handle any effective fighting with Sichte like this." Trauare said with a boring expression, not minding that their strategy was spoiled at all.

"Got it." Holding Sichte up, Trauare and Zorne both gazed at the stern and confused Pamela.

"Schwarzkreuz is indeed worth its name," Sichte directed at Pamela, withholding the pain that was eating away at her body, "but let it not be forgotten; the pride of RosenkreuzStilette shall not perish."

With that, the three teleported, leaving Pamela alone under a moon dyed jet black by the magic aura that was still lingering around in the air.

_… Did those two come to help? To save their captain from her pinch?_

_What if…_

_What if I were to fall one day…_

_Who…_

_Who will be there to help me…?_

Pamela lifted her head, staring into the clock tower as the moon regained its mid-night glamor.

"W-what are you doing, Pamela! Weak, it's because they are weak and can't stand alone! I am strong, and I don't need it."

Stifling her hesitations in the usual manner, Pamela sensed thousands of small auras coming from the way Sichte was trying to block off from her.

"Is that so… that's where all the fugitive magi's are…"

Getting ready to leave, something further down the path of the corridor made Pamela gape:

They were covered in pieces of shattered metals; blue and red hairs were flying away in the wind like autumn grass. Their eye sockets were empty on their ghostly faces, as if mourning themselves unable to see the two bundles of white iris that were preserved in space and time by Sichte's aura in front of their corpses.

As if fading into the background of the night, the figures of a metal arm and Leviathan waned into drifting star dust along with their transient and anguishing wielders; their ancient cries engraved eternally in time.

**Schneegestalt**

Mirrored on the other side of the bewitched moon, Freudia and Strudel arrived in front of the ruins of what seemed to once be a splendid church.

"Ms. Moon is so round… wonder how Ruu is ever going to rub her…" Strudel started to dream as she stares into the moon that was shut outside of the stained glasses. Freudia walked through huge corridors lined by pillars; grim statues of dragon shaded dark by the moonlight spread themselves sporadically between the pillars, all of them staring at their uninvited visitors. Most of them are lined by dainty dresses of plants.

"…" Freudia was just about to lift her hand when Ruu dashed out in a ball of ephemeral light towards a naked status and ran a hole through it. Blood just started to rush into the carved eyes of the status before the color faded back.

"Ehehe " Ruu giggled as she came flying back towards Freudia.

"That's was unnecessary of you, but let me word my thanks."

Freudia has since long been alerted to the hostility in the air carried in waves by an inharmonious aura of a freezing layer externalized by a burning core. A giant statue of a nameless saint was as if sealed into the wall by the green chains that dominated the ruins; a gloomy omen exuding out of the colorless eyes.

"Are you done wording your thanks?" the aura aggregated in the mid-air and materialized in front of the weakly glowing abyss of the moon filtrating through the pillars, "then pray, for a peaceful death of yourself."

"Freu?"

"Back down, Strudel." Tension returned to Freudia as Eifer suffused the world with her empty glare. There was a depth in her eye, deeper than the moon, but no revelation that gives any allusion to her being, "You said your name is Eifer?"

"Ai-chan?" Strudel wore a confused expression.

"I'll have Tia back." Freudia claimed sternly.

"There is no need for that. You will die here."

"This isn't making any point at all," Freudia brought back her usual line, closing her eyes, "This place could just as well be your graveyard."

"You really think that was my all last time?"

"It doesn't look any different to me either way."

"Rats! I'll tear you apart!"

Digging her hands out of her pocket, the discordant aura around the three suddenly intensified.

"…!?"

"Die, Freudia!" the burning core of the aura rushed out, breaking the outer frozen layer. The plants snuggling to the ruins were instantly materialized into spears of piecing sharpness and were shot off towards Freudia in dozens. Freudia adroitly lifted herself off the ground, half a second after which the ground cracked in the pressure of the spears that had gone amiss.

"Strudel, hide yourself. _Fackel!_"

"Fool." Eifer lifted herself up the same way Freudia did. In front of her, a vast, seemingly endless corridor was embellished with her weapon.

Eifer hided the pain in her voice as she summoned an explosive amount of her aura in a split second, which Freudia wasn't even able to anticipate given their previous fights. Spears of plants shot out from all direction, and Freudia, instinctively, flew as to dodge the attacks. However, she was surprised to learn that none of the spears were aimed at her; the weapons were simply used in forming a nest around Freudia and jailed her.

Through the crevices of the prison, Freudia could see Eifer, one hand above her head, summoning a bulk of her aura into an energy ball, which has gathered to such a size as to fill the corridor. Eifer seemed to be clenching her teeth, but she didn't give in until the end.

"It's over, Freudia…" Eifer said in a barely audible voice before pointing her pool of energy towards the plant nest.

_This summon speed and amount of aura… impossible, not even Tia has attained such power. This is bad…_

"_SCHNEEKRISTAL!_"

As if combatting her own thought, Freudia recited with as much fortitude as she could as Eifer's attack landed on the net. Thousands of snowflakes perished in face of the voluminously vacuum energy orb. Spears of plants were instantly vaporized, which gave Freudia the chance she had been waiting for as she accelerated towards the ground as the heat ripped off on her skin. After so long an excruciating time, Freudia landed on her knees, panting deeply. The remaining energy smashed into the saint's statue that greeted Freudia and Strudel before the battle and pulverized it. A flickering moonlight strayed into the corridor, illuminating, to Freudia's surprise again, countless deep green crystals that solidified out of Eifer's aura.

"How could she be so…"

"Of course," Strudel was floating besides Freudia, to Freudia's oblivion, "because, Ai-chan is Ai-chan."

Before Freudia could catch her breath, Eifer was already over Freudia; her body already weakened much from the use of over-powered attacks, but her unwavering will conquered the unsteadiness that was plaguing her body.

"Ashes to ashes, dusts to dusts."

**Der Kampf des Staubsturmes **

A hazy sun veiled by flying dusts greeted Pamela on her way back to the church. Vaguely, she sensed two clashing auras somewhere around here earlier in the previous night, but she decided to forget about it. After all, Schwarzkreuz would not lose pride to RosenkreuzStilette.

"What a ridiculous sand storm… as always." Pamela soliloquized to herself in usual habit.

The sand storm only roared louder, carrying more sand into the air with it. Pamela established a barrier using her aura so that her cloth won't be unstained any further by the storm.

"Then why don't you kill it?" a voice shot through the storm followed by an unusually strong gust that nearly blew Pamela away. The storm was instantly clear, revealing a blazing afternoon sun; Pamela has travelled all day without realizing it.

"Schirach… thanks for coming all the way out for me. I have defeated the captain of the RKS."

"Ahaha, that's my little Pamela!"

"I am going to report this to the Pope. Come with me."

"Well, guess I can't do that," Schirach, pulled her glasses away from her face, nonchalantly pulled out a parchment from her cloak, enjoying the confusion that Pamela was shrouded in, "I announce, in the name of the Pope, to all faithful believers; Empire patrician, Pamela Arwig, is the holy traitor of the Church. Given which, she shall be discharged from the mission of Schwarzkreuz and hereby expelled."

"S-say what?" Pamela couldn't believe her ears. Schirach was still smiling; the dagger in her smile struck Pamela for the first time, "those are the words of the Pope, Pamela-chan, I am not allowed to let you into the holy territory of the church. You can go."

"Impudent! Are you making a joke out of me?"

"Ahaha, here's the real stuff," Schirach laughed, holding the parchment in front of her, "this is no joke, you know…" Schirach's voice trailed off in an ominous revelation of her hostility stemming from her deeply rooted fighting desire.

_Why? I had been fighting for the Pope all this way… this is surely a trap. Such an unparalleled insult… why am I going through this? Lecht, Rink and Eifer, what are they doing? Why isn't there anybody who is coming to me?_

"AHAHAHA!" Pamela was driven out of her train of thought by a series of demented laughs; Pamela must have worded her thoughts out loud, "Being an unpopular girl is so painful, isn't it!"

"Schirach!" Pamela entered her self-defense mode, as if just realizing Schirach's existence.

"How about just giving it up about all that vilification and I-am-still-loved business?" Schirach, throwing the parchment into the wind, began walking towards Pamela, "or are you still thinking that there is no worse tragedies?"

"Silence on you contempt!" anger seized Pamela's mind, "although only for a short period of time, aren't we still comrades who fought together for a common cause!? How could you possibly turn against me so quickly! Know you shame!"

"Huh? For you who don't even know those 'comrades' to talk about camaraderie? Laughtable!"

"…!?"

Schirach is pressing against Pamela now, their faces barely apart. Schirach's night-booze breath struck heavily on Pamela's face as she talked, "Pamela-chan, what do you think of those two little sisters?"

"What do you mean, what?" Pamela's voice dropped below a whisper.

"Rink does not exist!" Schirach's voice hit deep within Pamela.

"Doesn't… exist?"

"Right! She is a fake shadow, and never existed. Actually, both of them never existed! They are their ability, _Falschegestalt_!" not letting go of such an enjoyment, Schirach continued, "Normal people would have realized that, but I think what normal people do is a bit too hard for a know-nothing milady like you? And what do you know about Eifer?"

Pamela shook her head slowly, as if trying to deny the facts; her expression is nearly teary.

"Huh?" Pamela's question came like a light caress on Schirach's cheek and Schirach lounged back in another berserk of laughs.

"AHAHA! Like I thought, you are that slow! Eifer is a homunculus! If you just throw away all that subjectivity and look into her aura, you will know!"

"Lies…"

Schirach pressed back in, "Can't you see already? There has never been such a thing as the morale of the Schwarzkreuz! It won't matter if we have a captain or not. And therefore, there is such a case where we just go about our usual way when our accessory captain goes missing. Do you get it? My little Pamela-chan?"

Pamela was shaking uncontrollably. Schirach pulled her in and lined her own lips as if savoring the scent of a prey, then, lightly, licked Pamela's cheek, intentionally let her saliva stay.

Pamela fell on the floor, teeth clenched, "Why… why should I be put through all of this!? I am Pamela of the noble Arwig family…"

"How pitiful. And this is how the miserable Pamela-chan got expelled and alienated by her faithful family, eventually becoming a loner!"

The figure of Schirach seemed unreachably tall. However, an unknown fire blazed out inside of Pamela.

"SCHIRACH!"

A crimson aura flew up from the ground and wrapped around Pamela, forcing Schirach to jump back, her huge hammer in hand.

"O~mine!" one corner of Schirach's lips curved up as she attempted all she could to hide the joy that was detonating inside of her.

In a split of a second, Pamela darted towards Schirach, Weiβsilber protruding. Schirach lounged backwards again; the "blade" of Weiβsilber cut right through her body. In mid-air, Schirach flipped herself backwards as an angry flash of sword pressure flew right past her and landed back on her feet.

Just then, an image Pamela rushed down from above while another dashed up from behind. Schirach, with a violent swing of her hammer above her, dissipated the figure of Pamela from above and quickly turned around to block the attack from the real person.

The moment she blocked the vertical slash, Pamela disappeared again. Schirach could hear that the air was being slashed around her and instantly judged the direction of Pamela's attacks. Holding her hammer firm, Schirach rampaged forward in a zigzag line while brandishing her weapon. The ground around her exploded almost the moment she left, sending mists of sands into the air.

Bursting out of the dirt, Pamela aimed right at the back of Schirach, who turned around with such craze that she started a sand storm right behind her, consuming Pamela. Seizing her chance, Schirach jumped in front of Pamela and brought a devastating horizontal swing of her hammer that drove Pamela into the ground, sending up another veil of dirt.

"Ahaha, this is so fun!" Schirach swung her hammer again to clear the dirt, revealing a deep hole in the ground, "but the world is not going to change if you are this weak!"

The roar of wind drifted into silence. Objects around sank into oblivion.

"…!?"

Schirach turned back immediately and barely blocked the crimson flame burn from Pamela's Weiβsilber as the aura that Pamela used to generate a clone of herself floated up from the hole and added to the power of the attack. Schirach had the hammer pressed onto her wrist but wasn't in a position to turn. Soon, the hammer succumbed under Pamela's pressure and flew off, landing Schirach on the ground, her neck centimeters away from the tip of Pamela' blade. The silence around the two maintained itself for a seemingly very long moment before Pamela withdrew Weiβsilber, breaking the chasm of time.

Letting out a sigh, Schirach said nonchalantly, "Here, here, what's wrong? One step further and you could have had my neck."

A teary blush showed on Pamela's cheek, "I've had enough… being manipulated around. You simply wanted to fight me; all those insult-like remarks were simply traps to get me, am I wrong?"

"Hummm… didn't you just become more mature, at least more poised than I thought."

"Schirach, don't you know who vilified me, given your insights, and that person's goal?" Pamela's expression softened in her plea, "please, tell me!"

Standing up, Schirach smacked the dirt off her cloak and placed one hand on Pamela's head in a coaxing manner, "Here, here, how could you back off at this point in time? The powders of fire that you spread, you shall extinguish yourself. You have the power to fight; not the power bestowed by the pride of the family, but the power to be used for the sake of Schwarzkreuz earned by yourself."

Pamela's expression slowly started to clear up. Schirach smiled again; this time, there wasn't any dagger in her expression.

"Right… if I can't prove using my own power, then I fail as the captain of the Schwarzkreuz. Just like you said…" Pamela backed off from Schirach, "Watch me, Schirach! I shall clear this up using my own power, and I will have everyone acknowledge me, Pamela Arwig!"

The sun seemed to be setting again behind the sandy clouds as Pamela regained herself.

_All I planned was to preach like they always do, somehow she is so consented with it… holy mine Pamela-chan is so frickin' cute!_

As Schirach indulged herself in her daytime reverie, Pamela noticed the aura of a different nature.

"Who's there, show yourself!"

"Y-yes!" a trembling voice came from behind. Pamela turned around and saw Lecht followed by Rink.

"Y-you two?"

"Man, you are loud!" Rink complained.

"What are you doing here?"

"That… you see…"

"To expel you from this land of course!"

The heavy armor fell back on Pamela again and Rink continued, "but as we watched you fought Schirach, we figured that we couldn't really be of any help."

Pamela faced the two twins; they were both looking back with a defensive nature. Pamela let go of a sigh.

_Calm down, Pamela_

_…_

"Lecht, Rink, and you too, Schirach," Pamela's voice came out calmer than she expected, "I won't give up on Schwarzkreuz. I will also strive to earn your trust. One day, can you all come back with me again?"

…

"One day, we, too, will be abandoned by the church. We know that much..." Rink said after a period of heavy silence.

"… but… going against the church on our part… was simply unimaginable…" Lecht picked up, "please give us time to consider, and we pray for your success in appealing your case."

"Alright…" Pamela said calmly. Something in the eyes of the Refractias as if erased the disappointment that she expected. Turning towards Schirach, Pamela was just about to say something when she was cut off;

"Ahahaha, as long as I can get entertained like I was today then of course~ Pamela-chan!" Schirach said in her jokingly manner, "We can even take it one step further and get married if you want to. How many children you want, Pamela-chan?"

"W-who's going to marry you, you fighting lunatic!" Pamela blushed badly at Schirach's joke, falling right into her trap, "I didn't know you had interests like that, shame on you!"

"AHAHAHA!" Schirach burst out laughing again, "Pamela-chan, you are so cute you know that? And you are so fun to play around with-haha!"

"H-how dare you play with me like that!" Pamela's embarrassment turned into an anger of shame.

Schirach finished her laughs and looked back up at Pamela, "Well, well put all the jokes aside, do your best in bringing around the miracle. I look forward the promising fights that you will bring me!"

With that, Schirach left with Lecht and Rink.

"Schirach, Lecht, Rink…" Pamela murmured in the desert. The requiem of the wind resounded around her and she looked into the distance, at her own palace that stood tall among the rest of the world.

"Eifer, wait for me…"

**Ontologie**

"Finally, this will mark the end."

Eifer murmured coldly; blatant hostility oozed out from all over her being.

"I'll return you to dusts!" pointing her hand at Freudia, spears of plant rushed in almost instantly and pierced Freudia to the ground.

"Tsk!" the figure of Freudia soon deformed into a pile of snow as ice began to climb up the chain of plants. In a split of a second, the freezing magic bloomed into an icy flower of icicles, across which Eifer jumped, "Won't let you get away!"

With Freudia escaping in front of her, Eifer engaged in a deathly chase among the intertwining pillars, which seemed to shrink closely together in the dazzling speed of the two. Freudia was holding her left shoulder, a taint of red emerging from underneath her hand. Then, in a twist of her body, Freudia turned herself backward facing Eifer and spread a handful of glowing ruby particles, which bloomed into scarlet flowers of icicle in Eifer's way.

Dodging through the edges into the starry roof, Eifer didn't lose sight of her prey, "Won't let you get away, _Eiferstachel!_"

"_Freudenstachel!_" turning her back to the moon, Freudia shot back at Eifer. The two waves of aura conjured a blazing bullet hell in the midair, detonating in a fiery roar.

Landing themselves on the roof of the giant ruin of the church, Freudia let out a breath. "Your spears won't reach here easily, will it?"

"Don't you underestimate me!" in a burst of aura, the green weapons wriggling beneath the roof jutted out and shut Freudia off from Eifer's sight, spilling a pool of blood to the side.

"Take that, bug." Freudia jumped up from the Eifer's jail of plants; the injury on her left shoulder started to tear apart again while her right arm was drenched in blood.

"Freu, you are alright?" Strudel was flying besides Freudia.

"Give it up!" from below the roof, tentacles of plants flew up and caught Freudia on her right wrist, making her bleed more violently. Crucifying Freudia in midair, Eifer lifted herself right in front of Freudia, "I've been waiting for this moment, Freudia. What a perfect ending for you, don't you think?"

"Eifer…" Freudia managed a whisper, barely looking up at Eifer. The ominous aura of Eifer started to gather again in a similar manner like earlier and soon taking the shape of a giant ball of energy, "I'll send you on your way with all my strength."

Under the moon, the silhouette of Freudia disappeared in darkness.

Landing herself on the roof, Eifer nearly had to find a support to prevent herself from falling to her knees.

"Finally, I..."

Eifer's train of thought screeched to a halt; the freezing aura didn't disappear from the air, but rather started to gather around her. A layer of ice deposited on the roof, freezing Eifer's plants in an icy coffin.

"I-impossible!" tracing the source of aura, Eifer located the jail of plants that first shut Freudia off on the top of the roof. Soon, ice climbed onto the jail and shattered it into broken ice chunks. Freudia, her left shoulder nearly healed and right arm intact, stood behind it.

"_Freudenzwinger!_"

Forming a pyramid around Eifer, Freudia as if let down a shroud of snow around her opponent as Eifer's aura shrank, embalmed in the cold.

"It's your loss."

"A snow clone? Rats!" Eifer cursed into the ground as she sank down to her knees, "this body… is falling apart…"

Standing over Eifer, like she was before, Freudia murmured more to herself than to anyone else, "Eifer, what in the world are you…"

"Born from nothing… and will eventually return to nothing… but I must… finish you off…" in seemingly great pain, Eifer breathed out the sporadic words that barely made any sense.

"What are you even saying?"

_Ashes to ashes… dusts to dusts…_

Eifer let those last words linger in the air as her body dissipated into the emerald crystalline aura which soon spread in the sky. Freudia stood watching, as Strudel caught up with her from behind.

"Strudel, you did well this time. Were there any injuries?"

"Nope, Ruu is just fine what about Freu?"

"Looks like I will have a take a rest…" Freudia said as she laid her eyes closed; her aura significantly weakened, to the point of disappearance, "By the way, did you say something about Eifer?"

"Oh, Ai-chan, is a homunculus "

**Der Erbe**

Pamela's legs were filled with lead shots. She dragged herself across the desert while panting heavily. The heat waves of the day ebbed and gave Pamela a cool relief as she arrived in front of her own palace, which towered over the entire flat desert.

The same crimson carpet greeted Pamela as she re-entered her home. Statues of silvery knight armors lined the two sides of the carpets, axes in hands.

"…"

Followed by a sound of thunder, axes of one of the armors fell on the ground along with the severed wrist armor. Pamela, Weiβsilber in hand, didn't even have her breathing interrupted.

"Looks like I am really branded, aren't I?"

As Pamela was letting out a sigh, the palace was already filled with maids; there were no color in the eyes of any of them as they also greeted simultaneously,

Welcome back… here we go… please excuse me…

Pamela's heart was filled with such a hollowness as the spacious room filled with such puny resistances that wouldn't even realize the lifespan they have left; the crimson sunset was like a piece of art work performed in place of a requiem.

The same requiem followed Pamela as she reached the top of her palace; the roof was buffed up by a round of four pillars, allowing the whole room to be soaked in crimson.

"More chasers from the church?" Pamela's voice resonated in her hall, reaching to the figure on the other side of the room. The figure was dressed in a dark red turtleneck with a cloak hanging from his neck. A tiny piece of blue jewelry was worn on his forehead while a yellow piece of diamond was embedded in the center of his dark red pants, from which a whip hanged. Much of his muscles were exposed.

"No, you are not, you are RKS." Eyeing the whip that the man already pulled into his hands in a self-defense manner, "that whip, I have heard words about it. You are the heir of the late Count Sepperin, name is, if I am not mistaken, Kahl Palesch, the brother of Liebea Palesch."

Pamela coerced her nerve to tighten belligerently again, "Phrase it, what's your goal in roaming around here?" similar to how Kahl used his whip as a defense, Pamela placed her hand on Weiβsilber in an offensive manner, "hmph, although it is quite a surprise that you are still remaining as a member of the RKS after being thrown into the jail by Count Sepperin in the Walpurgisnacht."

The defensive air disappeared from around Kahl, "To me who didn't have anything, the Count not only gave me power and knowledge but also let me call him father. There is no wavering in my faith to the Count."

Kahl's atmosphere shift seemed like a surprise to Pamela, but she didn't let it show. There was only one consoling to her lead-heavy body; "that's quite something to say. But will you be able to run away from me, given that your magic power is even weaker than your sister?"

Pulling her sword out, Pamela was ready to dash towards Kahl, "if you are not going to word your purpose, then I will force it out of you!"

"Although I don't want to be conspicuous, I can't be caught here. Here goes!"

The two clashed heads-on before Pamela anticipated.

_This guy… is fast!_

"Take this!" Kahl as if flew past Pamela and brought his whip around from behind Pamela. Pamela judged the direction of the attack from the sound that the whip made as if tore through the air and jumped up right besides the whip. Twirling her aura into a vortex, Pamela sent a wave attack aiming right at Kahl.

To her surprise, Kahl didn't dodge but rather dashed right through it with clenched teeth towards Pamela.

"What!?"

Kahl flung another attack at Pamela, which struck hard on Weiβsilber. When she landed on the floor, Pamela realized that her attacks were sealed by the whip. Pamela attempted quickly to break herself out of the lock with a quick jerk, which Kahl put down with force.

"T-this muscle-head!"

"It's true that you have power in you, but power is the only thing you have. This way, your collapse is determined, even if I am not the one to bring about that." Pulling out his axe, Kahl ensured that Pamela is locked in place and dashed towards her.

The blade of axe came relentlessly towards its prey and screeched to a halt in the mid-air; the blade ate away at an orange barrier that ran a monochromic rainbow across Pamela's watery eyes.

"Don't make me say this so many times," Pamela said on the embarrassing verge of tears, "I won't lose to you RKS!" shards of sword pressure flew out from Pamela's blade and instantly pulverized Kahl's whip. Then, bringing the length of her blade along her shoulder, Pamela pointed the tip of her sword at Kahl while crimson energy swirled in as a vortex.

"Kahl Palesch, take this!"

Wording her ultimatum, Pamela charged forward without waiting for a response. Weiβsilber struck right onto the face of Kahl's axe and pushed him back. With a slight twist of his wrist again, Kahl threw himself out of the way while the axe flew off in two pieces. The tip of Pamela's sword drilled through one of the four pillars supporting the huge roof.

Swinging her sword off to the side and dispersing the mist of dust she made, Pamela summoned her last strength into one last attack aimed deathly at Kahl, "This time…" Pamela's sound started trembling while her view blurred a little.

"You!" Kahl, to Pamela's surprise, dashed towards her. For only a few seconds, Pamela was unable to judge the distance between herself and Kahl, forcing her to close her eyes. When she reopened her eyes, the aura that Pamela gathered with great effort dispersed, refilling her body with heaviness as she realizes that the roof of her palace was collapsing on the pillar that she destroyed and falling towards her.

Unable to move, Pamela involuntarily fell to the ground, unable to make a sound.

"_Darkness!_"

Pamela's eyes remained closed for a few seconds as sound of rumbling and explosion broke out around her. Pieces of rocks bombarded her head while something warm splattered on her face.

After a moment of silence, Pamela dared to open her eyes again. After rubbing the face with her hand, she realized that her hand had been tainted red. Looking up, she saw a huge figure standing in front of her, covered in dust. A stream of blood floated down his right arm, dripping onto the floor.

Kahl turned towards Pamela, although the defensive nature in his eyes didn't manifest in his posture. Pamela lowered her head; slowly lifting her blade, she stabbed Kahl in the stomach with as much strength as she could manage but Kahl stopped her final struggle with just two fingers.

"…can't you just fall already…"

"…"

"Why… WHY!? You RKS! Why are you all like this! Are you patronizing me? Why should I ever go through this, why me of all people…" Pamela controlled herself; she was choking but she didn't let any tear fall, "you… muscle-head…"

_She didn't realize my purpose for being here? Meaning she didn't know that Liebea was captured by the church… then I could expect no new information out of her_…

Pamela's emotional mess gave Kahl enough time to reason his way through.

"But regardless," Pamela stood up, slightly blushing but trembling badly, "if your purpose was to assassinate the pope, I can't let you…!"

Before Pamela could finish her talk, Kahl pushed her lightly on the shoulder and Pamela fell flat on the floor with a stifled moan.

"Captain of Schwarzkreuz, what is it that you are fighting for?" Kahl stood in front of Pamela while applying an algae-colored anointment to his wound from a small dainty porcelain container, "your comrade? A cause? Risking one's life in something that one doesn't even see clearly is pitiful."

The bleeding on Kahl's shoulder stopped. Bending down, Kahl laid down the anointment on the ground in front of Pamela and stood back up, "being exiled now, you don't want to do anything too conspicuous on the land of the church, do you? Then I will retreat here."

"H-hey, stop!" Pamela wanted to burst herself forward but suddenly lose strength in her body and fell face-down. When she opened her eyes again, Kahl's anointment stood lonely in her sight. Reaching her hand towards the tiny container and grabbing it, a tiny stream of warmth floated into her hand.

_Spending that much strength, he shouldn't be able to assassinate the pope anymore…_

_…_

_Even though not being trusted, he still fought to fulfill his responsibility…_

"Kahl… Palesch…"

Pamela's eyes closed and snuggled against herself. In the light of the sunset, the figure of a lost girl as if adorned the earthly mess suspending in the scarlet heaven.

**Vampir Mond**

_Once upon a time there was a White King. The king had many faithful knights, followers and a wealthy kingdom. _

_The king was beloved by all the people in his reign but there were two exceptions. One is the twin brother of the king. He was often judged in his brother's standards, to the point that he sometimes doubted his own existence. The other one was a Red Devil who was dispatched by the King's sole enemy to bring ruins to the land of the White King and its people…_

_Freudia Neuwahl… never thought that she is already here… magic has not yet recovered…_

"I shall have you out of my way!" Freudia said solemnly as an ice sheet spread itself out on the marble ground of the grandiose church. The ice shone brightly golden, making Pamela cover her eyes in reflex.

"Ah! Ms. Captain again." Strudel said nonchalantly, "But Freu, are you OK using that much power? The healing is not done yet…"

"No, it was quite enough, thank you." Freudia whispered to Strudel, not losing sight of her enemy. The ocean blue piece of jewel dangling on Strudel's neck gleamed sapphire with Freudia's magic.

"You seriously think I will let you pass!" Pamela, drawing her sword in defense, said.

"You are in no state to fight, get out of the way."

"Silence! I am the daughter of the prideful Arwig family! I shall never admit defeat to a traitor like you!" Pamela's voice carried the dagger that she couldn't carry otherwise.

"Freudia is right. You are of no more use, Pamela"

Pamela wasn't aware of the source of the voice; when she turned around, the blur of a bundle of green spears rushed towards her and struck on Weiβsilber. Pamela was caught in surprise and instantly pushed back.

"…!?" A weak wave of aura gathered into the air and Eifer showed herself in front of Freudia and Pamela.

"Wa!?" Strudel exclaimed as Freudia stared defensively ahead of her.

"E-eifer… why…?"

"All preparations are done. There is no more need for the Witch Hunt." Eifer said without a trace of emotion, "there is no more point in the Schwarzkreuz." Staring into Pamela's eyes, a mask of malice covered Eifer's face, "and you, rat! Thanks to you everything has gone off!"

"Eifer…" the images from Schirach's fight filled Pamela brain, "I will go to the pope and have the vilification cleared up. But it's too much a pity to lose you." Extending her hands towards Eifer, Pamela continued, "I don't know who's the one that made you a homunculus, but repent, and come back to me! That power of yours, use it for the correct purpose!"

"You realized my true form? How annoying…!" Eifer hissed.

"No, it wasn't me, but Schirach. I was careless and didn't know enough about the Schwarzkreuz. But I will change that." Sincerity filled Pamela's eyes as she stared into those of Eifer's, "Eifer, I wish you to fight alongside of me again!"

"What a stupid woman. Just who were you wanting to see again?" acidity pumped into Eifer's tone, "the real pope has been dead since long. The one you know was nothing but a homunculus."

Pamela's eyes widened as a fearful swear traced down her cheek, "s-say what…?"

"Mr. Pope is dead?" Strudel murmured to Freudia besides Pamela.

"The pope is just in the room ahead of this. Go ahead and investigate his aura, you should be able to tell quite well. The pope is nothing but a puppet for God. Bow and listen well to the words of my master, the True God."

Eifer stepped aside while an overwhelming source of aura conjured into the air and a seraphic figure emerged from the light. The figure was tiny and cloaked in red and black dress; a bloody tiara was embedded into the hair of the seraph.

"… Iris!" Freudia worded with hostility while Strudel floated besides her.

"Greetings to you all!" Iris laughed with a smirk, "and nice to meet you, Ms. Pamela I am the ruling God of this world, Iris Sepperin "

"Iris Sepperin? The lost daughter of the Count Sepperin?"

"Ms. Pamela, you brought me quite a surprise; the mission only intended to be a show, you actually carried it out and defeated the RKS!"

_She's the one behind all of this…!? Only a child? But what is with this aura of hers…_

Rearranging her thoughts a little, Pamela's biggest worries suddenly rushed into her brain, "Answer me, Iris! Are you the one making and manipulating the fake pope and Eifer?"

"That's correct. And Schwarzkreuz especially, you had done quite well, I shall praise you "

"And my exile…" anger started to boil in Pamela's brain.

"Yes," Iris giggled darkly, "after your RKS feat, I simply wanted to see how you would react to such a sudden plight your face, filled with desperation, ruggedness and weakness while masked with anger… was just so enjoyable "

"How dare you…" Pamela's aura boiled beyond crimson, "how dare you play with me and the pride of the Schwarzkreuz!"

"Pride? Don't make me laugh! What value do you think there is in the position and honors given by a pope puppet?" Iris words stabbed Pamela's body like needles, "this whole protector of the empire and the church game with you Schwarzkreuz… I feel the embarrassment as an audience for you "

Turning slightly towards Eifer, Pamela intentionally let her hair cover her teary eyes, "Eifer… those days of us fighting together… were those all fake?"

"Boring." Eifer concluded simply, "I am simply obeying the orders of my master."

After a moment of silence, Pamela lifted her arm to her face and wiped off the tears with a fling of her arm, "what a pity. And, how pitiful."

"Say what?"

"Although you have the form of a human, you are after all nothing but a homunculus!" Pamela yelled to Eifer, "Not having any subjectivity and simply obeying, you are just a doll without pride!"

"SHUT UP!" Eifer lifted one of her hands to her head, "I am not just a doll! I-I am myself!"

"IRIS!" Pamela didn't listen and charged her aura into her sword, "the threat to the empire and the church, begone!"

"Pamela, stop!" Freudia shouted behind Pamela who already dashed out towards Iris. The seraph gave a dark laugh; her eyes gleamed red like a vampire. A flash of lightning blazed out from the wings of the seraph and consumed Pamela in the light.

_A lines, two lines, three lines…_

Pamela's arms shook. The lightning struck at the blade of Weiβsilber as cracks lined its body.

"Lies…"

After a crystalline scream, Weiβsilber shattered and shards of its blades were blew off, engraved into Pamela's body.

Pamela, too, flew back; her mouth was open, but her scream was mute. A bed of snow engulfed Pamela and eased her to the ground.

"And now," Iris's image resurfaced after the lightning submerged, "may I ask a useless witch like you to resign?"

"A… w-witch?" Pamela murmured into nothingness on the floor.

"And you, Ms. Freudia! It was quite a show for me to enjoy; a frozen witch coming to rescue her abducted friend, sometimes even fighting against her own comrades? What an impressive friendship "

Freudia was alerted, "How did you know that?"

"Of course," Eifer hissed again, obviously trying to forget Pamela's thorny words, "we had been spying on you. That's why we prepared that fairy right there."

Freudia turned towards Strudel, her expression frozen as always. "Freu, sorry."

"But there is no more point in spying. Come back, Strudel." Eifer ordered coldly while Iris laughed just as darkly.

"…"

"Ruu…" Strudel shook her head after a long silence, "Ruu, changed her mind. Because, Freu is so kind, Ruu wants to become Freu's real friend "

A wave of overwhelming aura flew out from Iris the moment Strudel finished her words; her sapphire hair flew backwards as if in a flight. But Strudel, in that situation, still maintained her smile in face of the threats.

"Bug, are you out of your mind?" Eifer cursed darkly.

"Well, well " Iris opened her mouth and Eifer shut herself off, "I am quite generous. So I will let a bug do whatever it wants." Turning her eyes towards Freudia, Iris's laugh is filled with daggers, "Ms. Freudia, I will go prepare a splendid stage for you, but again… will you be able to reach it?"

"…!?"

A huge magic platform emerged from underneath Iris and glowed ominously. A few sparks of bloody flew out from it while a figure appeared from the ground; silvery hair and dark cloak with emptily bloody eye sockets.

"Count!?" Freudia's voice was filled with disbelief.

_Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter… Protect my daughter…_

"Freshly brainwashed for you, please don't hold back for the sake of your life, Ms. Freudia "

"Iris… you are not a human after all, are you?" Freudia's breath was freezing; ice climbed through the ceiling, as if swallowing the whole hall.

Iris giggled darkly again, "then, I will wait for you at the stage." Iris and Eifer teleported out of the hall, leaving behind the giant platform on which Count Sepperin stood. The count's figure was mostly restored, however, blood started to ooze out from all over his body almost the moment when restoration completed. The count's figure wriggled around, as if groaning, and then, painfully, roared into the empty space of the hall,

"_GRANT US POWER!_"

A jet black mist flew out of the figure of the count. And mist gathered in quantity and soon towered over Freudia flying in the midair. As if responding to the cry, the day turned dark and a bloody moon rose outside of the hall.

"Strudel, back down." Freudia said. Strudel, flying besides Freudia, let on an expression of surprise.

A huge head of monster extended out of the dark mist; a huge fleshy scar still engraved in the back of its head like a dark wriggling maggot. The monster bellowed painfully; its scream shook the entire hall.

"Count, please forgive me."

Waving her hand in a crescent arc in front of her, tens of magic platform followed the freezing aura the Freudia spread into the air and aimed themselves at the messy mist.

"_Eislanze!_"

_The White King had a sole, single enemy. She was once a high official in the kingdom; the love people gave her was unparalleled except by the King. But eventually she betrayed her people for power. After her first coup d'état failed due to the effort of a certain person, she left the kingdom and became a mystery. _

_However, the capricious and evil nature in her plot never stopped haunting the people of the kingdom, and the King himself. Her name thus became the taboo in the land; the people referred to her as the Fallen Angel…_

"Freu… angry?" Strudel's arms dangled down from her shoulders, her head lowered a little so that she didn't have to look right into Freudia's frozen eyes. There was no anxiety in her voice but she seemed quite plagued by the lack of it.

"Not really." Freudia closed her eyes, shutting herself off from the legacies of the count, "you would probably have been killed anyway if you were to go back."

The wings of Strudel glowed transparently blue; a profound color soaked the fairy laces engraved in the wing; snow dusts effused out off into an atmosphere of pale light around Strudel.

"Listen up, Strudel," Freudia opened her eyes and looked right into Strudel, "friends are never to betray each other. Can you promise me that?"

Snow started to fall from the top of the endless pillars. A tiny snowflake floated over top of Strudel's head as she cupped her hands for it. The icy crystal softly landed in Strudel's palms like a piece of frozen tear shed by a shut soul.

_But, the tear will never melt…_ Ruu looked right back at Freu's eyes, "Yes, Ruu, promise "

The sphere of light surrounding Ruu dissolved into Freu's aura, "Then, we are friends from now on." In place of the snow that was beyond melting, a smile thawed over Freu's expression, "nice to meet you, Ruu."

"Yeah, yeah Ruu became real friend of Freu "

"What a fussing child."

_… the White King also had a lot of friends, but two stood out to him especially._

_One is a childhood friend of the King. Not born into a family of nobility, he was forbidden from seeing his old friend and walked quite a different path than the King. He was the one who stopped the Fallen Angel's plot and saved his people. King never stopped to look up to his friend… and shed tears for the distance between them._

_The other one was a child ruined and abandoned by the Fallen Angel; an innocent, happy child…_

**Weiβsilber**

_One day, the Red Devil was sent to kingdom of the White King, told to bring ruins to the land. The Red Devil went confidently._

_Soon, he arrived at his first victim near a suburb village in the land; an elderly grandma who was walking with stick and a huge basket of wood chips on her bent back._

Haha, it's your last, woman! Be prepared to die!_ The red devil told the grandma relentlessly. _Mine, mine, young man. I am always prepared to be taken by God. But before that, I was told to treat others nicely by God. How about it? Want to have a bowl of soup at my house? Although it's a quite shabby place. _The grandma replied the Red Devil. The grandma was blind._

_The red devil stayed at the grandma's house for a night. The next day, the grandma took the devil to the town of the King for shopping. The devil was among all the people for the whole day._

_However, the devil didn't kill anyone for the whole day… _

A wave of loving aura approached and washed upon Freu and Ruu. Freu managed to hide her joy of finding her new friend and Liebea came before the two.

"Ms. Freudia!" Liebea exclaimed as she covered her mouth in courtesy.

"Liebea? What are you doing here?"

"Yes, about that…" Liebea rubbed her face a little.

"Liebea was abducted by the church you see," Sichte walked up from behind Freu, "we just came to get her back."

Following Sichte, Grolla and Kahl came right after and joined Liebea. Their focus involuntarily fell on the ground, where Pamela laid like a lifeless puppet.

"This person…!?" Grolla seethed silently; the ominous blade of Grollschwert dangled belligerently besides her waist. Kahl placed himself between Grolla and Pamela, signaling Grolla to calm down, "Lord Kahl…"

"Ms. Freudia," Liebea hid herself behind her brother.

"Freu?" Ruu sat herself on Freu's shoulder and murmured into her ear. Freu nodded slightly and walked towards Liebea.

"Liebea, please take care of this person."

"But…" uneasiness mingled with fear in Liebea's eyes.

"Right now, she is nothing but a witch like the rest of us."

The six looked back at Pamela; a silent understanding seemed to be achieved. Turning away, with Ruu smiling sweetly on her shoulder, Freu prepared herself to leave, "then, I will have to go after Ir-"

"I…" Pamela's lips moved lifelessly, as if pre-programmed to move, "am not… a witch…"

Closing her eyes in pity, Freu and Ruu left the corridor.

A sad trail of tear rolled down Pamela's eyes and drifted into dirt beneath her. Liebea knelt down besides Pamela and summoned her aura to heal Pamela. Broken shards of Weiβsilber gradually fell off as her wounds healed.

"Stop doing that!"

Pamela suddenly lifted herself off of ground, blowing Liebea aside; chunks of blood sputtered out and spilled on the ground and the corner of her mouth was stained red. Rage was flowing out of her eyebrows for a second but quickly drooped into a cloudy shade.

_The Red Devil was lost. The Red Devil asked himself, for what is he living? He realized that he couldn't answer himself._

"Kill me…"

The words struck at the four standing in front of Pamela like a hollow brick; hard but empty.

"You, do you understand what you just said?" Grolla asked grimly; her fingers traced the dark hilt of Grollschwert.

"Grolla Seyfarth, your sword is screaming for my life." Pamela leaned back her head and her eyes lost color, "Right, your sword and you should both be hating me. Come, I won't resist now…"

"SILENCE!" Grolla drew out her blade, which grown even sharper and gleamed even more ominously, and pointed it at the throat of Pamela, "How dare you belittle me and my sword!"

Pamela only laughed darkly. The tip of the blade was only a hair bit apart from Pamela's neck but she approached the blade herself, sinking the hatred into her flesh. A stream of blood quickly rolled down her neck. However, Grolla dropped her blade.

"Hmph, laughable." Grolla sheathed her blade, "right now, you are not worth my blade."

Memories started to resurface from the depth of Grolla's brain. The figure of a tall magi wielding a long scythe and a thick sword, the pain of thousands of wounds all over the body, the regret for not accomplishing something, the hatred for one's self for not being able to accomplish, the effort spent in eliminating one's weakness, the endless cycle of failure, and the one line engraved into Grolla's body;

"Go straighten yourself out!"

Grolla stared into the empty eyes of Pamela and walked away, Sichte following with a bitterly smiling face.

"Brother…" Liebea, confused about what to do in the situation, sat on the ground with one arm in front of her chest.

"Liebea, are you alright?." Kahl helped Liebea to her feet. Then, turning towards Pamela, Kahl approached the Weiβsilber on the ground. Lazily, Pamela lifted her head to face Kahl.

"Brother…?" Liebea whispered behind Kahl.

"Captain of Schwarzkreuz, you have fallen quite a lot since we last met."

"…"

"Are you giving up?"

"…so?"

"The pride of Schwarzkreuz, is that only some blather?"

" …"

"The time you spent with your comrades, is that meaningless?"

_After that, the Red Devil trapped himself in the house of the grandma. Instead of chasing him out, the grandma still smiled serenely everyday and fed the Red Devil like her son._

_But one day, the grandma past away. The Red Devil stared at the corpse of the human lying in front of him; the image slowly blurred away. The Red Devil remembered his mission, being told to bring ruins to all people._

_However, he couldn't hold himself back. Tears rushed out of his eyes like a spring. He couldn't forget…_

_The warmth of this shabby little house…_

_The soup that the grandma prepared for him everyday…_

_The smile that never left the grandma's face…_

_The time he spent with the grandma_

Pamela's head lowered again, hiding her eyes from Kahl's. Her lips trembled slightly and then stopped. Kahl shut off his eyes and let out a sigh.

"Liebea, let's continue the heali-"

"There was…"

Kahl turned his head around; a scarlet blaze flared up around Pamela and the shards of broken Weiβsilber danced up to the flame like phoenixes fluttering their wings.

"There was meaning in our time!"

The golden corridor was suddenly lit brightly red by Pamela's flame. A dark purple shadow flew past Liebea, raising a silvery glimmer.

"GROLLSCHWERT!"

Grolla swung down her blade from behind her shoulder full strength and a web of dark violet beams sliced through the air, advancing towards Pamela, "LET THIS ENGRAVE INTO THAT BODY AND ROT!"

Pamela's lips, however, curled up with an air of arrogance, "hmph, I refuse."

Raising her hand, a vortex of fiery aura swirled around the broken shards of Weiβsilber and completely embalmed them. Then, just like Grolla, Pamela flung down her hand. The fire was as if commanded by its owner and gathered in front of Pamela. Reaching into the fire, Pamela slowly pulled out a hilt and soon the body of the blade itself.

"WEIβSILBER!"

_The Red Devil abandoned his hatred. The red skin shed from his body, revealing an angelic figure. _

_Standing on top of a mountain, the Red Devil looked over the land that he came to destroy; all he saw was a beautiful land covered by emeralds of plants, sapphires of lakes, and gold of people's smiles. _

_When he looked back towards the cave from where he came, all he saw was pitch black. And thus the Red Devil made his first move, for the grandma whose name he didn't even know, and the people in the land that the grandma loved._

Cracks lined the pillars and crevices filled the floor. Three heavy beams fell on the ground and shattered off chunks of powders and dusts into the air.

"Looks like you are fine now." Grolla sheathed her sword.

"Well, well, what's wrong? Are you not going to come at me anymore?" Pamela, sword in hand, bore a confident smile on her face. Grolla grunted and walked towards Sichte.

"Milady…"

"Ah, got it. We have to be at the frontier as well, don't we?"

"Therefore, the fight with you shall continue another day, Pamela Arwig. That hatred, I won't forget."

"Is that so?" Pamela also sheathed her sword, "Eifer…" Pamela blushed the moment she called Eifer's name. Hiding her hands behind her, Pamela half-clenched her teeth and rubbed her fingers together.

"Healing is no longer necessary it looks like."

The red on Pamela's face somehow spread even more after hearing Kahl's words.

"You…! This muscle-head!"

"Go."

The furrow of embarrassment disappeared slowly from Pamela's forehead. Her empty eyes cleared up and her lips shut together, as if gathering strength to make her resolution.

"I'll go even if you don't say so."

**Eiferstachel**

It's just not fair that they judge you based on who you are not, _the Fallen Seraph said to the brother of the White King. _But if you don't know what to live for, I will give you a meaning…

_With that, the brother of the White King stepped off in his journey towards the kingdom, towards the Red Devil and the White King…_

The world has gone pale suddenly. A huge orb was positioned in the middle of the sky, covered by a layer of snowy aura but still glowed brightly, making it hard to discern between afternoon and evening. Glittering flakes filled the water of the lake which was flowing quietly.

"Somehow reminiscent…" Freu murmured silently.

"What is it, Freu?"

"No, nothing. Let's go, Ruu."

_Tia…_

The area was quiet. Wind past by the travelers like a weightless dress. The statue of an angel crucified on a pillar slept serenely while red stains encroached on her dress.

"It feels like we had been wandering around the same place for a while…"

"Ruu is getting tired…"

"What a child." Freu coaxed, "We'll find the exit soon."

"This place…"

"Do you know this place, Ruu?"

"Umm, this world is created by aura of Ai-chan's heart "

"Eifer!?" Freu was stung by the name, remembering how Ruu told her that Eifer was a homunculus. Freu looked around once again; the colorless-looking world, the quiet and tranquil water, the angel stabbed in the heart…

"This is… Eifer…?"

Ruu smiles softly and flew ahead, "Freu, this way."

The path that was ahead of Ruu was full of stings, jutting out of both sides of the way. Freu's eyebrows lowered a little and she followed Ruu down the way of shambles.

_The brother of the White King marched forward. However, the person who greeted him was not the Red Devil, but an innocent-looking child and the White King himself…_

"Eifer, I've heard… that you are a homunculus."

Freu and Ruu arrived right in front of the statue of the stabbed angel where Eifer awaited. Eifer no longer wore any gloves; her hands seemed extraordinary small and delicate.

"Right. I am a homunculus created by Master for the sake of smoothing up this stage."

"Frankly, that's unbelievable." Freu waved down her hand, as if trying to drive away the annoyance of the thought, "you ARE the human and the fairy…"

"Freu…" Ruu's eyes shrunk a bit; what would appear as sadness only showed as a kind of serenity on Ruu's face.

"Is that all you heard from the bug? Then that's incomplete." Eifer said emotionlessly, "that bug is missing memories of when she was created."

"?" Ruu stared innocently at Eifer, her wings fluttering silently.

Slowly, Eifer reached above her head. As if dragging a veil of mud away from her, she pulled off her hat and her hair instantly turned snow white. When she reopened her eyes, her pupils were bloodshot and scarlet, like Freu's.

"Ei-fer…?" Freu's eyes widen at the sight.

"Correct. I am a homunculus based off of you, Freudia."

"For the secret art of Rosenkreuz to be exploited like this…" Freudia soliloquized.

"But your copy split in two in the process of being created. For that reason, both clones lacked a certain part of their emotion…"

Looking grimly over Freu and Ruu in the midair, Eifer seemed to bear a certain resemblance to the crucified angel.

"… one clone was a human who didn't understand happiness and joy, the other one was a fairy who didn't know anger and sadness."

"Ruu is also based off of me…?" Freu turned towards Ruu, who was rather surprised this time. A confused expression flashed across Ruu's face before a spot of white emerged from the top of her hair and sprang all around her head, dying her hair and eyes the same color as Freu.

"Ah, Ruu didn't know… Ruu can do this, too "

"If we are just like sisters, there is no reason in us fighting… Eifer!" turning back towards Eifer, Freu appealed bitterly. However, it was too late. Eifer slit her wrist with a shard of plant. Blood rushed out and feel into a devilish cradle that Eifer conjured with all her remain aura.

"Wrong…" Eifer's voice grew obscure and resonated through the space, "killing you is all I got!"

Eifer floated into the midair. The mixture of her blood and aura became a mist of murky black. The dark cloth wrapped around Eifer one round after another and eventually formed a sphere around Eifer.

"Idiot…" Freu murmured weakly, her voice trembling.

A monstrously big, dark violet hand ripped through the dark cloth followed by another. The dark mist cleared, revealing a bloodshot eyeball in the middle of a spherical body.

_FrEuDiA!_

_The White King's brother darted towards his sibling as if having lost his mind. He drew out his sword and brought down one violent slash after another. The White King was expressionless; his face was masked. But he could see the attacks and dodged all of them. With a slight movement of his foot, the White King tripped his brother to the ground. When the King's brother turned himself around, he found the tip of a sharp blade pointed at this forehead…_

"_Eislanze!_"

"_Der walzer von elf _"

Among the fierce clashes of Eifer's black aura blocks an Freu's frozen lances, Ruu danced through the air, dissipating Eifer's aura.

The monster roared with an ugly voice. Black mists started to clear from the air while a deep green orb gathered in front of the eye of the monster.

_EiFeRsTaChEl!_

"_Freudenstachel!_"

_Looking past the blade, the King's brother still couldn't see the expression of his older brother. However, a clear bead of tear floated out of the socket on the mask of the King; the innocent-looking child smiled as if in relief._

_The King was unable to kill his brother…_

Freu knelt down besides Eifer and held her into her chest.

"Eifer, what is it that you can gain by killing me?" Freu inquired.

"I…" Eifer was choking on her own words. Her voice barely made a whisper, but it was quite enough for Freu to hear, "I m no… replicat… i-i… kil yu… den~"

"Ai-chan, is passing away?" Ruu came down from the sky and landed herself on Eifer's shoulder, "Ruu wanted to become friend with Ai-chan…"

Eifer was shivering weakly; there wasn't a nuance of warmth in her body, "so cold… not again… in s-such… col place… no…" Eifer's body grew transparent; pieces of diamond dusts seemed to be scattering away into the air.

"Eifer, don't move." Placing one hand on Eifer's forehead, a white sparkly snowy fluid flew into Eifer's near transparent shell.

"S-stop… cold…" Eifer whined painfully.

"Be still… if you are based off of me, my aura should help you recover…"

Half-visible, Eifer clenched her teeth in Freudia's desperate attempt. Moments elapsed like eternity; Freudia's aura became more and more worn out as the needles of time intertwined in sewing a transparent clothe for the figure in her embrace with the threads woven off her power.

"Freu…dia…" Eifer's voice trailed off; her lunar silhouette dissipated into the wind as a swarm of emerald powders.

Freu hid her face as Ruu rose up from the ground, "at such times, people cry… but Ruu can't really cry well…"

A few steps ahead of Ruu, Freu strove to keep her voice straight, "instead of real tears, the desire to cry is more important… that's what I think…"

The dissipated powders drifted in the wind and eventually found their home in the river below as ripples. The ripple flowers were not intricate at all, but all were very pretty...

Like they always had been.

**Die Legende "Weiβer König und Rote Teufel"**

_The brother of the White King walked on. He held his forehead hard, which hurt from the anointment that the King applied._

_Soon, he came a huge tree and leaned himself against it. The air was warm; fragrance of flowers around him embraced him like Mother Nature. However, another one sat on the other side of the tree._

_It was the Red Devil…_

Pamela sprinted forward according to her memory of the church. Things flew past her in oblivion as her mind was occupied by intertwining moments of embarrassments, anxiety and confusion.

_That muscle-head… how dare he preach me? But he's right… Eif_

_"ahh!_" Pamela's thought was brought out of her mouth as a choked surprise by an erect spring fountain that Pamela smashed her stomach into.

"It hurt it hurt…" Pamela knelt down on the base of the fountain, holding her stomach, "That muscle-head idiot…" Pamela flushed badly, trying her best to divert herself from the reason of the shame.

_That revealed body full of muscles… how lowly! It totally tainted my sword…_

As the pain in her stomach subsided, Pamela looked around her. The tranquility of the place as if washed away all thoughts from Pamela's head. A huge frozen orb replaced the sun in the sky; crystalline powders wafted through the air.

"By the way…" Pamela said half-mindedly, "it's evening isn't it… what a pretty moon…"

The fountain floated freely on the river; but the water dried from the fountain. Pamela sat down and leaned her back against the fountain. A slightly wet breeze caressed her face, seducing Pamela to close her eyes.

_The brother of the White King stood up and drew his sword at the Red Devil. The Red Devil didn't dodge. A smile just like that of the White King showed up on his face instead._

_The brother of the White King was lost…_

"Freudenstachel!?" Pamela stood up, hand on sword, and blindly searched around for the source of aura that interrupted her from her sweet dreams.

"Eifer!" realizing a half-transparent figure on the other side of the fountain, Pamela turned around and found Eifer lying on the floor, teeth half clenched, "w-why are you here?"

"P-pamela?"

"Eifer, how did you become like this?"

"F-freu-dia… where is she?"

"Freudia should have passed here a while ago. But," Pamela's eyes scanned Eifer's aura, "Eifer, you abused your aura again didn't you? You force yourself too much… even though you are a homunculus."

It took Pamela quite some courage to word the last part and earned nothing but a sharp glare from Eifer, "Tsk… you knew… about me? How annoying…" Eifer coughed out the words.

"It wasn't me. It was Schirach… I simply wanted to know more about my fellow teammates." Pamela knelt down besides Eifer and lifted her head onto her knees.

"You… s-stop!"

The moment Eifer's head landed on Pamela's knees, a wave of grim chill passed to Pamela's knees and Eifer's hair instantly turned bleach white.

"Argh!" Eifer let out a scratchy scream, her bloodshot eyes glaring at Pamela. Struggling badly, Eifer retreated herself from Pamela's knees, "get off me!"

_The Red Devil looked totally foreign to the brother of the White King. The brother of the White King didn't want to accept and immediately refuted. But he hesitated and was confused. He was also annoyed a little, but didn't know why… _

Eifer panted badly while solidity returned to her body. The white also started to fade from her hair.

"Eifer… is that why you are always after Freudia?"

"Damn it…" Eifer straightened herself with some difficulties.

"Don't even think about chasing if you are going to, Eifer. You won't be able to beat her."

"Say what?" Eifer hissed vehemently.

"Being brainwashed by evil, losing your sense of justice, you won't win." Pamela poured out the words from her heart; the feeling was freshly new to Pamela, "In comparison, Freudia has lots of friends. It just happens that she is alone this time. If not, you know what's going to happen…"

Pamela stood up in front of Eifer. Sensing that this would probably the only chance that she would get, Pamela reined her nerve and hid her fiddling fingers behind her back, "I revived because I want to be serious this time, for the Schwarzkreuz. This time, I want to know more about everybody. So Eifer, why don't you break with Iris and walk with me again? I will one day settle the things with RKS, the chance for you to meet Freudia again will surely come as well. Our interests are the same"

"Tsk…" Eifer shook her head around with a bitter laugh, "who the heck is going to join you, you waste piece."

"Aren't you also a waste piece of Iris now?" Pamela asked back, creasing Eifer's eyebrows, "how are you different from me in terms of being manipulated by Iris?"

"…"

A sad warmth filled Pamela's eyes as Eifer adjusted her breath, returning her eyes back to their original chestnut color, "always fulfilling the orders of Iris, do you plan to just die like that without even minding your own goals? If you are not just a doll, you should be able to understand…"

"Shut it!" Eifer croaked out; her emotion burst out in lieu of her dried up aura, "I am…!" stopping herself in mid-sentence, Eifer face trembled a slight bit. Snowflakes floated down like tears of the crucified angels. Pushing herself up from the ground, Eifer left without saying another word.

"Eifer…" Pamela waited for Freudenstachel to disappear from the air from letting out a sigh, "haa… although I was because of my ego, it is certainly so awkward not being able to have anyone turning back…"

_Shaking everything off, the brother of the White King ran away. But the Red Devil didn't stop his journey there._

_Right…_

_The Red Devil… he… she knew what to do… _

All of a sudden, an overwhelming dark foreboding washed over Pamela as she lifted her head towards the central building of the church.

"Iris…"

Pamela sank deep, through all the images in her brain and reached that before Eifer's; thousands of chains lined Eifer' body, whose eyes were closed. Her silvery hair drowned helplessly in the ocean of black. Drawing her sword, Pamela made up her mind.

So Pamela dashed out to slay the fate.

**In Walpurgisnacht**

"I've been waiting for you, Freudia. Welcome to the VIP seat of this stage, where a God shall be born "

Iris's eyes greedily scanned her preys. Freu's nerve tightened while Ruu appeared totally unaware of the direness.

"Iris, this is it. Give Tia back."

"You are chased down~" Ruu chanted in.

"You really entertained me; fighting all your lowly battles was such a joy to my eyes." Iris stroked her blonde hair, which flew in the mid-air nonchalantly, "As a token of my gratitude, I will present you with the lowest, cruelest and saddest death "

"You… what do you think life is?" Freu's tone was heavy. However, Iris only laughed harder, "Life? Ufufufuu To God, that is only a toy; because I can make as many as I want "

Glancing condescendingly down at Ruu, Iris's eyes narrowed in contempt, "Didn't you see Eifer and that fairy there which I created to kill time and the Count that I revived for fun?"

Raising her hands to shoulder length, Iris laughed heartily. A dark poison effused out of her sweet voice, "They are all worthless "

"Ai-chan?" Ruu questioned, a deep bewilderment on her face.

"Iris," Freu's aura grew dark of belligerency, "Tia believed that you would change… but you didn't. You shouldn't have been left alive!"

Ruu winced a little at Freu's anger, but closed her eyes in admittance. Filling herself with the magic revolving around in her necklace, Ruu looked with to Freu like a child.

"Well, well! How foolish! It's unforgivable for a bug like you to point dagger at the God!" flinging her hand down at, Iris worded slowly, "I will break you down, Freudia "

_The White King found her enemy. Anxiety and urge drove her hands, but fear and uncertainty dominated her heart…_

A jet black cloud spewed out around Iris, filling the black hall with an unbearable, rotten stench.

"Uuuuu~" Ruu pinched her nose under the stench. When the cloud cleared, a broad, golden-lit hallway broke out from behind; a giant conglomeration of rocks showed itself where Iris was. A single mechanic hole was etched into the rocky façade; blood was oozing out from the machine, intensifying the rotten odor in the air. On top of the rocky block, Iris sat with her legs crossed on a crown seat.

"Not fighting by yourself? How unpleasant…"

"Freu, fighting?"

"Yes, be careful, Ruu." Freu murmured back and made her resolution.

"_Freudenzwinger_!"

Freu gathered a huge chunk of her aura; thousands of icicles flew to the machine. From far, it looked like a web of white chains a central dark core.

"Ah, Ms. Freudia, look how much you are striving "

Despite Freu's attacks, the machine didn't quite bother that much. A spark of purple gem conjured in front of the machine, aiming at Freu. The sphere speedily grew in size, pushing asides the pillars with a loud crumbling sound.

"Ouuhohoho Freudia, please vanish like a bug "

In a split of a second, rhyming with a giant roar, the machine fired the purple beam at Freu.

_I… I can't get around this… but even if I can…_

"…!?" turning her head, Freu noticed that Ruu was still behind her, "Ruu…!"

"Freu, looks like we have to do it~"

Swinging her hand around Ruu, a sphere of snow crystal embodied the two.

"_Eislanze!_"

_If I can focus on one point… just one point… for Ruu, for Tia…_

"Ruu will help too "

Hold both of her tiny hands towards the barrage of the ice lances. The elf's orb on her necklace illuminated and waves of transparent blue flew towards where Freu was aiming. Freu's aura suddenly grew in madness and slammed into the center of the energy ball. The clear blue touched the purple and instantly vaporized. However, a dent grew more and more visibly as the purple doom approached Freu's barrier.

"Ruu, hang in there!"

"Y~es "

The bloody smell soon encroached upon the snow crystals, slowly eating away while pushing back the firing point of Eislanze, which fiercely stood at the frontier with Freu's eyes clenched shut. The dent in the middle of the energy ball was so deep that the top and bottom of the energy ball already stretched past Freu and Ruu.

"Ruu… I'm sorry…" a choked apology escaped Freu's mouth.

"Yes?"

"I…"

Flowing through the depth of time, an emerald wave of aura embalmed the grandiose hall, covering everything in a layer of silver which quickly elasped.

"…can't…!?" Freu was cut off in the midsentence by the sudden burst of aura behind her, which she urged to set her eyes on to confirm rather than relying on her instinct.

"ALL FIRE ALL OPEN, _LUSTATEM!_"

A smoldering block of blazing orange air blade slammed itself through Iris's attack, dissipating it into ghostly remains of purple smoke, and cut into the machine that Iris was sitting on. The contemptuous smile vanished from Iris's face almost immediately.

"My anti!?" Iris's expression hid a layer of venom; her glare was directly straight at Luste who was nonchalantly flying in the midair with a triumphant smile on her face.

"WAAAAAAA!"

The fighting yell of thousands emerged from behind Freu as thousands of aura sprang into live.

"First long-distance class, FIRE!" Kahl's voice pierced the battle-simmered noise of the crowd and a barrage of magic bullet hell flew towards machine, cracking it even more speedily as the miasma invaded the air.

However, Iris didn't let her usual poise leave that easily as she dusted her hair, put back on her condescending smile, and lifted a finger at Luste.

A bewilderment took hold of Luste for a second as she abandoned her hesitation, "the hero of justice is here! Prepare yours-"

"_Blitzstrahl _"

A raging bulk of laser flew towards Luste, who didn't have the time to process the attack.

"Mine, mine, I won't let you do it that easily ~" Sichte's nonchalant voice, smoldering a dagger-sharp tone, resonated through the hall.

The same silver frost flew across the dimensions as two shades dashed up from beneath and chanted in unison.

"TRUE ART UNLEASHED!_ GROLLSCHWERT! WEIβSILBER!_"

The ray of laser deflected just in front of Luste, subsiding into sparks of violence. Pamela revealed herself standing on a magic platform in front of Luste; Weiβsilber scarlet in her hand. Grolla was pushed back by the impact of the laser a little bit, flipped her around in midair and landed with her back to Iris, a weakness which she instantly destroyed with an angry slash of sword pressure that engraved a deep line of fissure in the ground in front of her.

"Iris… I was right to not let you live." Grolla hissed darkly, a deep hatred swelling up in her voice in eruption, "Spiritia is not around this time. This time for sure, your life is forfeit!"

"Iris!" Pamela claimed calmly, hiding her emotions, "I shall have Eifer. In exchange for that, I shall have you disappear!"

Freu slowly descended from mid-air, holding her arm, and landed on one knee.

"Freu, are you OK?" Ruu gently whispered to Freu besides her as a crisp breeze blew past in front of her.

"She's OK. Freudia won't fall easily like that ~" Sichte appeared in front of Freu; her cloth were ripped as always, but this time the ripped linings were laced with knives. Slowly focusing her sights on Iris, Sichte's gaze sharpened into a glare, "Iris, this is the end."

"Alas, so many outspoken bugs " Iris's machine groaned, a dark purple mist oozed out of where Lustatem cut through, making the stench even more unbearable. "You really think you have a chance at the hands of God?" Iris's eyes narrowed in a morbid pleasure.

A huge circle of red emerged from the ground underneath the Iris machine. The color intensified and violently erupted in a pillar of lava mingled with a tinge of blue, burning into the bottom of the machine.

"Sometimes God also needs a cleaning don't you think?" a pile of water seeped through the floor and formed a mirror of water, from where Trau and Zorne walked out, fully armed. Zorne's expression was a gloomy rage, "the debt of my father…YOU WILL PAY FOR IT!"

Zorne's yell screeched at the top of her lung. Her crimson hair flew up in a lunatic dance; the lava responded with even more violence and swallowed the whole machine in scorching ash.

"Zorne!" Trau rushed up from behind and grabbed Zorne from the back. Thousands of pieces of burning dusts rained sporadically on the floor like Zorne's tears as she collapsed into Trau; her aura disturbed beyond limits, "you idiot…" Trau whispered helplessly into Zorne's closed eyes; the tears from her shut soul slowly boiled into an ominous whirlpool of desperation.

"That was some good entertainment as far as a bug goes " emerging from behind the flame, Iris floated in the midair with her phony wings. The machine was falling apart like a burnt out piece of giant charcoal. However, an overwhelming shroud of cadaverously purple mist oozed out and engulfed in hall in semi-darkness.

_The King's followers came to his aid… but the King's enemy didn't even budge to move… right, she has more plots up on her sleeve…_

From behind the screen of the mist came millions of clattering of chains and the soft, rotten noise of wood striking against the floor. Iris looked down at the mist, seemingly trying her best in containing her pleasure from ruining her poise.

"Well then, let the dance start, between you and your comrades "

Emerging from the mist as if a giant devil egg has been spawn, thousands of corpses stepped out of the mist. Flesh has yet to completely rot away as they dangled loosely from the frame of the skeleton. Pure desire for life rushed out of their hollow bones as formless screams for souls.

"The gate of the Netherlands… let it open here "

Slowly and steadily, the zombies wriggled, stepping out of the shadow. Those at the front line stopped in pace and started to make hand signs. A blaze of fire flickered weakly between the hands of the zombie and flared up into a fireball. Gathering the ball into its right hand, the zombie flung the fireball towards the crowd of magi that rushed up. Following the lead, other zombies followed, like a shooting class. The scream of pain of hundreds immediately followed.

"Wriggle like bugs, and please me more " Iris's cruel laughter accompanied the shamble below her cold stares.

Sichte's eyes narrowed in plight, "Magic? Don't tell me!?"

Freu furrowed along with the dark omen as Iris's mouth curved into a mock, "That' right. There are the respect-deserving martyrs of the holy empire. Of course, all were the victims of the church "

"I knew it…" Sichte's voice was soaked in a heaviness that doesn't characterize her at all.

"Klageharnisch!" pillars of water swarmed up from the ground; the fierce vortex rolled up the lines of zombies as their figures disappeared into the depth of blue.

"How dare you hurt my friend like that…" a menacing darkness emerged from Trau's aura. Swinging Leviathan adroitly around her like a protective armor, the blade of the spear glowed a deep blue, "farewell, you shall vanish from my sight with all the sea weeds!"

"What blather," Iris smiled and waved her hand. Another swarm of zombies emerged from the miasma, "numbering more than one million, can you really handle it? But please don't hold back; I will summon back as many as you can handle, for the sake of this grandiose party "

"Then, I will word my thanks and do all I want…"

"…!?"

"well… _LET'S ROCK IT!_"

A destructively violent earthquake followed Schirach's belligerently trembling voice. The shivering impact lifted the zombies off the ground as a pair of glowing shadows danced through the myriad of corpse in a crisply devastating round of shatter.

"_Falschegestalt!"_

"Bugs… looks like you don't know which side to stand on "

Following Iris's command, a crowd of zombies encircled Freu and Sichte. A confident laugh masked Sichte's face as the daggers in her hands hid her eyes. But before she moved, Schirach's shadow flicked into the circle of zombies. At that very instant, all the zombies went flying off in all direction, shattered into pieces. Wielding her giant hammer into the sky, Schirach wrought it down onto the ground, sending a fighting shiver through the ground.

"Listen up, my lovely fellow RKS members!" Schirach's voice carried her simmering joy through the army of RKS that came to the front line, "Let's inherit the will of the Count, put an end to this devil's plot and snatch back Spiritia Rosenberg!"

The crowd started to calm down a little bit from the uneasiness from the zombie's attacks; a noise similar in fashion to Schirach's fighting will brew in the crowd and soon erupted into deafening bellows.

"FIGHT!"

"THAT'S SCHIRACH THE DESTRUCTION QUEEN!"

"VICTORY IS WITH US!"

The fighting formation spread out through the RKS army as the morale rose to its high point. Sichte approached Schirach, "Mine, mine, should I say that's what I expect from the previous RKS leader?"

"Alas, Sichte-chan! Your breasts grew bigger again!" Schirach flung her hammer over her shoulder and laughed at Sichte.

"Thanks a lot I guess."

"Then," Schirach took off her glasses and opened her eyes again. As Sichte's precursor, Schirach's eyes looked just as dagger-ly as Sichte's, "It's been long."

"If I follow your pace I will probably collapse… but I guess once is fine." Turning towards Freu, "Freudia, I'll leave the rest to you. Go and accomplish what you have to."

Freu nodded gently and the two disappeared from in front of her. In the distance, piles of zombies flew into the air one after another while others vanished into the water.

Standing up, Freu stared through all the chaos and found Iris.

_The White King realizes it; it's time for her to end everything. The stage is set, and the showdown has begun…_

"Freudia, as promised, I will provide you the best stage " Iris left and words and departed towards outsides of the roof.

Freu stood up, her fists half clenched.

_Tia…_

"Let's go Freu. For Tia-chan's sake, too" Ruu encouraged lightly.

"…" Ruu waited in the silence that surrounded the two of them, for Freu to make up her final resolution, "Freu's friends are also here "

"… You are right, Ruu."

Behind Freu, the sword of Holiness glimmered strongly while the blade of Demons seethed violently; their wielders were just as determined as Freu herself.

**Am Ende der Wunder**

"Sylph of the wind, spirits of the nature!" Liebea screamed her prayer into the golden twilight, as if soliciting the power of the dying sun. Kahl stood erect in front of his young sister, whip in hand, in face of thousands of corpses. A pouring rain bombarded down from the sky; the rain drops were so clear as if washing away all the taint but as soon as the droplets touched the zombies, the rain revealed its acidity relentlessly as the angry sparks smolderingly eat down the army of the past.

"Not bad at all. But I can't lose; Lustspirale!"

"Fesselspirale!" Dolis's emerald shuriken flew through Luste's giant air blade and scattered it into hundreds of meteors that slammed down upon the horde of zombies, "W-wait a sec, stopping giving weird names to other people's weapons!"

"WHYY~~~? That name's so cool!" Luste whined back. The two were so occupied with each other, the looming shadow of a zombie fell upon them unnoticed. However, what landed on their bodies were not the claws of doom but rotten parts of a cadaver.

"What?"

Dolis looked up around her and saw swarms of fly-like crystalline shuriken embalming Luste and herself.

"Geisterwand." Schwer worded tentatively with a rare determination in her voice. The shuriken shields slowly whirled back to their owner, as if crowning Schwer as a queen in dying Walpurgisnacht.

"Y-you, Luste!" Dolis turned back and screeched at Luste, "get serious!"

"Got it got it!" Luste blew off Dolis's warning with deliberateness and marched on to continue her rampage.

"_Kui kui_"

"Mister Zeppy…" Schwer paused a second and lifted her head; the impact of Iris's machine left a huge hole on top of the giant hall. Faint light of the day melted into the palace as the air of tranquility became encroached by the zombie's perishing desire.

"Tia…"

_But the White King had not realized… _

_That a separate end is approaching…_

"Show yourself! Iris!" Grolla screamed. The day is dying, but the night has yet to show any sign of beginning. The scorching color of the sky triggered an awakening a decaying part of Grolla's memory.

The huge suspended bridge joined one side of church to the other side in the distance. The carved pillars reflected the same color of desperation as the sky. The statuses of goddess carved into those pillars seemed to be crying, out of fear, out of desperation, out of sadness. A river of sparkling blue flew quietly underneath the bridge and gently imprinted its image into the sky. This same image was as if engraved onto the campus of the church from the model of the Count's imperial training hall.

"Grolla, calm yourself down." Freu warned.

"hmm… not round after all…" Ruu stared thoughtfully at Grolla and finally commented on the side.

"Here comes…" Pamela grasped her sword tighter, in response to her already overreacting nerve.

From the floating river image in the mid-air, a huge vortex of aura merged into a magic platform and a shadow jumped out. The same twilight camouflaged the figure that suddenly appeared until it landed right in front of the four.

_The White King knew at that moment; that it was the end of the miracles…_

"T-tia…" a mix of doubt and joy took over Freu's mind.

"Freu, that's not Tia-chan." Ruu murmured, managing her most urgent expression.

"IRIS!" Grolla dashed out and swung her slash of hatred through the air towards the girl with blonde, long hair.

"Klageharnisch " a pillar of water shot out from underneath and pushed back at Grolla with full strength.

"Garrghh!" Grolla was violently thrown backwards. Stabbing Grollschwert into the ground, Grolla stopped the overwhelming momentum against her and landed on her feet, dragging a long sliver of crack across the ground.

"This is… Spiritia Rosenberg." Pamela whispered to herself. Emerging from behind the whirlpool was the figure of the Spiritia with deep blue hair but with an exaggeratedly sweet tone that wasn't characteristic of her.

Slowly, Spiritia raised her head. The moment she opened her eyes, a piercing killing sense took hold of Pamela and instantly disrupted her train of thoughts, making her lose her stance. Seizing the chance, Spiritia whipped a water slash towards Pamela and drown Pamela in water.

"Ahaha, how unbecoming " Spiritia laughed at the sight of Pamela trying to shake the water out of her face, trembling slightly on her knee.

"Tia?" Freu murmured and her eyes met with those of Spiritia's; almost immediately a cold wave of chill flew into her bones that struck Freu more than all the absolute zeros that she had experienced, "Iris…"

"Correct " a darkly pleasant aura surfaced as a distorted form of Luste's air emerged. A barrage of violet air blades flew towards Freu. Waving her right hand in front of her, Freu conjured a huge mirror of ice that shielded Ruu and herself from doom.

At the moment when Iris focused her attack on Freu, Grolla and Pamela rushed up in an attempt to sandwich Iris from left and right. Iris, however, didn't budge as her hair blackened and two metallic crystals fastened themselves onto her arms, block both attacks from the sides. The blades struggled badly against Schwer's aura but barely made a dent in the shield.

"This is the power of Rosenkreuz, to merge auras of different people?" Pamela pressed in hard, images of Eifer flashed across Pamela's brain. Gone with all the hesitation, a holy aura burst out of Pamela and a blaze flared up.

"Fall and shatter!" fire seemed to be burning in Pamela's eyes as Weiβsilber sparked against Iris's shield.

A similar purple demonic aura that had been simmering in Grolla flooded out; an abyss of hatred, a refluxing hell of vengeance, the cycle of eternal powerlessness and the never-ending pity.

"GUUAAAAARRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

_The force of the demon and the angel were both on the side of the White King. But her enemy was beyond an angel in appearance and beyond a demon in cruelty..._

Following a chipping sound, fissures showed themselves on both of the shields, yielding to the pressure from both sides.

"Laughable "deliberately loosening herself from the deadlock of Pamela and Grolla, Iris instantly brought up Zorne's explosive aura. A huge detonation followed and the strong gust of wind caught both in the lower and pushed them back. However, the moment Grolla and Pamela got pushed back, a huge ice flower locked Iris in the frozen jail.

"Shatter, Iris!"

Freu's aura pierced the ice prison and shattered it into thousands of tiny ice flakes. The fainting light danced off one flake onto another, weaving an intertwining web of light onto the silhouette of Iris.

"Bugs… looks like you don't know what's what." Iris hissed heavily like a snake. It looks as if Spiritia was wearing a demonic mask as a dark thought brought a curve to the side of her mouth, "fine "

The world then froze. A nasty algae green covered the body of Freu, reviving the scars from eariler. Pamela and Grolla also fell on their knees due to the impact.

"I-iris…"

"You can still talk? That's surprising " Iris taunted, "According to Tia's memory, this aura is so anti of yours that simple contact could easily kill you "

"Freu?" Ruu tempted.

"Iris… what is this?"

"As you see," Iris looked down, "at the sacrifice of thousands of humble magi, I was able to borrow Spiritia's body although I don't quite like this unsightly face of Spiritia's, but I will change back later."

"Tch…" Grolla managed to lift her head, earning nothing but a contemptuous look from Iris, "but I didn't know Sichte's aura is also an anti to both of you "

Turning her attention back to Freu, Iris's mockery grew more acidic, "so, Ms. Freudia, what are you going to do? Fight me?" Freu's eyebrows twitched as ice climbed up her own body from the tip of her feet, "Oh scary! Don't fight me Freu, please. I don't want to fight Freu! Something like that?"

The ice slowly gained speed and soon crept up Freu's body and spread itself apart.

"But this is such a sight. The reason that you are weak against this aura is because the time control disturbs your control of aura so as to cause overflowing. How does it feel to be killed be your own aura?"

Floating in front of Iris is an ice statue and a disbelieving little fairy who kept on shaking her head.

"Then, let's end this "

Holding her hand out towards Freu, dust particles of transparent blue air of heat gathered into a ball of energy inside of Iris's hand. To exacerbate the situation, Iris deliberately put on the serious expression that Freu last saw on Tia's face when they were fighting.

A roll of ice droplet thawed at the corner of the ice statue's eye.

"Seelegewehr "

_The blade of the beloved one ran straight through the chest of the White King; what awaited was only the abyss of no return…_

"Freudia!"

"Freudia Neuwahl!"

The spirit rifle shot blew Freu's ice statue off into the air. The statue seemed to be in free float for a while, as if lingering to wait for Tia to come back. But eventually, accompanying the choked yell of Grolla and Pamela, Freu fell to the bottom of the river below. The world then went silent.

**Winterlichwalzer**

The red ribbon drifted in the calm rhythm of water. Shards of ice slowly skinned off Freu and gently dissolved. Slowly, Freu's body was freed from the rigidity as she sank deeper and deeper into the river.

"Freu…" Ruu dashed toward the river after Freu, leaving Grolla and Pamela on the ground in front the Iris who was laughing hysterically. With a small splash of water, Ruu became a shadow covered by blue ripples. The surface of the river became disturbed with a few bubbles of water and soon rested still again.

Diving deeper, Ruu struggled badly against the upward current of the water. Her fairy wings flashed a faint blue once as a stream of weakly glittering sapphire particles started to float off.

"Ah…" at the floor of the river, Ruu spotted Freu. Flapping her wings one last time, Ruu allowed her wings to drift into nothingness as she gained the last bit of acceleration to reach right in front of Freu's face. Resting her hand lightly on Freu's forehead, Ruu closed her eyes…

In the distance, a gruesome aura spread out and reached the battle field in the grand palace.

A zombie flew across the sky and shattered like a fragile piece of fruit followed by another three. Schirach landed on the ground and caught scent of the aura.

"Mine, mine, did I drink too much?" a dark source of jealousy boiled deep inside of voice as she rubbed her force with her hand. Clenching her fist, a gust of wind blew out and carried off the invading zombies like pieces of trash. "That's probably not your mis-sensing." Sichte's image flashed across the scene and solidified with her back to Schirach's back. As Sichte was talking, an emerald dust breeze blew past towards the top of the church, "tch, at this time!"

"Well, this is the dead end…"

"Really is, Grolla and Freudia are both weak against the nature of my aura, we must g-"

"for Iris, that is." Schirach's mouth curved into a disappointing smile.

When Freu opened her eyes, there was nothing around. A single prism sealed away her body along with all her possible motions. It was very impossible to judge the broadness of the space; the surrounding was soaked in the kaleidoscope of twilight color, one that Freu knew well somehow.

"SEELEGEWEHR!"

The ghost of a scream broke the dead silence of the space as Tia flew past Freu's prism. Ahead of her, among a dozen of abnormally huge magic platforms, a dark seraph stood erect. The two images gradually approached, faded and vanished.

_Tia_…

_The White King rested silently; her words cannot reach; her emotions can only struggle against the chains of fate._

"Freu…"

"Ruu?" Freu mouthed the name and was immediately reminded that there's no sound coming out of her mouth. Ruu floated down and rested her tiny palm on the surface of the prism, "it's OK, Freu. Ruu is able to hear Freu."

Ruu's words penetrated the prism and resonated clearly around Freu.

"Ruu… where's your wings?"

"Ehehe… they melted when Ruu was in the river…" Ruu laughed childishly. Freu's head lowered a little in apology; there was no strength left in her body to respond to her will of taking the little fairy into her arms. Choking back her regrets, Freu's voice was torn apart. "Sorry…"

"Freu?"

"Sorry, Ruu. Looks like this is as far as I go. Hurry back up… I don't want anything to happen to you anymore after Eifer…"

Ruu shook her head slowly, "Ruu, won't let Freu alone." Placing her hand on the prism of Freu, the prism flashed in a colorful phantasmagoria that began devouring Ruu's hand like the water did her wings. "Ruu, stop!"

Ruu shook her head again. "After meeting Freu, Ruu learned a lot. So Ruu will stay with Freu…"

Freu stared disbelievingly…

"whenever…"

… her mind desperately screaming for someone to help the disappearing figure in front of her…

"wherever."

_Please… someone…_

"How unbecoming." A voice reached from behind Ruu, "is this all you got after all, beetles?"

"Ai-chan?"

Eifer emerged from behind the twilight. Her chestnut hair was uncovered by her usual winter hat.

"Eifer, why are you here?"

"Huh. So much for your big words. After all, you weren't able to save anyone; not Spiritia Rosenberg, not that beetle over there… not me either."

Freu paused for a little. Her mind scratched for words but didn't find anything, "sorry…" Eifer seethed at Freu's apology. Her eyebrows furrowed angrily, but something was missing compared to usual. "You make me want to throw up! Pretending like a big sister and being condescending your whole way, only to come to a sorry apology?"

"Ai-chan, that's enough." Ruu interrupted. Eifer, staring at Ruu for a second, also calmed down a bit, "Ai-chan wanted to say something different, right?"

"Eifer?"

"Do you want to live or die, Freudia?" Freu hesitated for a while. Hiding her face from the unyielding eyes of both Eifer and Ruu, Freu murmured, "but… that was Tia…"

"so you cannot shoot? Naïve. One day, you will die from that naivety."

"But…"

"Why did you fight me? And why did I fight you? What appeared only as a meaningless fight for you was the struggle against fate for me. That's why you disgusted me from the beginning. And you disgust me even more now."

Freu lifted her head to look at Eifer's face; she saw an expression on Eifer that she had never seen before.

"I am not just a doll. To prove that, I will not choose my method. This world is not childish enough to allow you choices. What about you, Freudia?"

_The White King's sister showed herself in front of the White King. For the first time, she was crying; a tearless cry. For the first time the White King saw her sister. And for the last time, the White King cried, with tears of blood._

"This is the life that I got from you, Freudia."

"Ai-chan?" Ruu got lifted away from Freu with an unseen force as the prism started cracking. A wave of cold air engulfing a burning core returned to Freu.

"Here we go, Strudel." Eifer's figure got drawn towards Ruu as the two disappeared in a ball of sapphire light. The world of twilight merged into the world of reality. One after another, the images of the RKS members emerged_._

_Everyone is still fighting… so as to break the nightmare…_

Voices came flowing in; the battle screams of thousands. The voice became clearer and clearer; the twilight color grew more and more intense as the deep blue of the water faded.

"Eifer… Tia…"

"GROLLSCHWERT!"

"How stupid are you, Ms. Grolla. Lay back and enjoy your death can't you?"

Iris flashed out a beam of laser that bellowed towards Grolla's unguarded chest area while she held her sword above her head, ready to bring down her weakened slash. Pamela dashed between the laser and Grolla and defended against the laser with all the strength that she had left. But in the darkness of Iris's delirious laugh, both Grolla and Pamela got thrown back as their swords flew out of their hands.

"This is it!" drawing her other hand, Iris threw another beam of laser at the two who were crumbling under the pressure of Sichte's aura. The laser snaked towards the two and, just before swallowing its preys, became frozen pure white.

"…!?"

A pale blue white dotted on the twilight color of the sky and quickly spread out. Snow started to dance down in the seemingly world of ice.

From way below the bridge that Grolla and Pamela rested on, the river water burst up with the force of an avalanche and froze in midair as an ice mountain, towering over the bridge and Iris. Thousands of vines of climbed speedily up the iceberg, emitting sparkly emerald particles on their way up and mingled harmonious with the falling snow. Freu emerged from behind a mirror of ice, glaring down at Iris. One streak of vine rising up behind Freu ripped the red ribbon and Freu's hair spread out in the chilling wind like a winter roulette board of frozen death behind her.

"To save Tia, I, too, will not choose my method."

Like a piece of dainty crystals gently being blown away by wind, Freu churned out aura like a whirlpool.

_Right… I shall eventually greet the tomorrow… for the sake of that…_

Accompanying Freu's words, Freu's aura condensed in the air and six giant ice flowers sprouted from the bridge below and formed a prison around Iris from the top of their spikes.

"Freudia, looks like you haven't learned your lesson yet, not to exercise such profanity against God." Iris hissed in her menace, "DIE GEPLANTE ZU~~"

"_Weiβ teufel_." A pale white wall of boundary clashed and overwhelming the algae colored world that Iris conjured.

"What!?"

_Right… this is my choice…_

A white-haired fairy circled the mountain of ice up and stopped herself besides Freu. A trace of hostility arose in her tone. A trail of red traces its way from the corner of Ruu's right eye down her cheek as her eyes narrowed, shooting the same scarlet glare at Iris as Freu.

"I'll lay you to sleep in a frozen coffin of ice…"

"… for all the eternity to come."

**Freudenstachel**

"Fufuuu… HAHAHA!" Iris broke out into a hilarious laugh. Wiping tears out of her eyes, she calmed herself down and glared back at Freu, "then can you attack, this body?"

Freu grabbed onto the laces of her dress and, with a crisp jerk, ripped off a ring of skirt. Gripping the ring in her hand, Freu lifted it to shoulder-length and let go. The moment the ring started to drift, Ruu's eyes flashed red and Freu vanished from sight.

"…!?"

While the sudden surprise caught Iris's nerve, a dozen of vine pillars jutted up from below and crucified Iris in mid-air. A pure white light flashed past Iris and Freu rematerialized side by side to Iris. Her wild hair, having completely lost order, as if roared into Iris's face. Color quickly drained from Freu's body. In the split of a moment the figure blew up with the impact of an avalanche. Spiritia's body flew out from the snowy mist and slammed into the ground. By the time she stood back up, her hair ribbon had also fallen off, unraveling her bundled white hair.

"Freudia… !?"

"_EIFERSTACHEL!_"

Freu didn't give Iris enough time to respond. Grabbing a shadowy emerald ball of aura, Freu flung it across the air and spread its particles into the frozen twilight. Coming into contact with the burning aura, the plants all over the church ground started to wriggle and spear towards Iris like a woven spider web.

"Eifer?" Pamela pushed herself off the ground and looked up, worries filled her eyes.

"Tch…" Iris snorted, "GROLLSCHWERT!" dark violet sword waves flew out in all directions from Iris, deflecting Freu's plant blades into the floor around. In the matters of a few seconds, the vine spears gathered like a forest around Iris and Freu tied off the top by mixing her aura across the top.

"_EIFERZWINGER!_"

Smashing her force into the vine prison, spikes branched off of the vine pillars into the jail. A torn scream followed by a flash of dazzling light busted out of the jail with the shadow of a dark seraph.

Letting the chaos out of the jail, Freu sealed off the jail in vine and turned around to face Iris. A distorted expression dominated Iris's face.

"How… how dare you!"

The dark wings flapped once and Iris's aura rampaged and drifted into waste. Brandishing her arm like a sword, Iris sent a row of laser flying towards Tia's unconscious body. Almost out of instinct, Freu threw herself in front of the laser, which madly dissipated her aura. However, clenching her teeth, Freu showed no sign of yielding.

"Freudia, out of the way!"

"Freudia Neuwahl, dodge!"

"Freudia…" Ruu flew besides Freu. Blinking her eyes once, both figures disappeared from the world and the laser fell straight onto the two blades that immediately followed.

"None of your business. OUT OF THE WAY!"

Wasting another bulk of her aura, Iris blew off Grolla and Pamela. "Haha… ahaha… huh!?" a frozen saw blade cuts through Iris' left wing and flew off into the distance. A ray of tainted grey light emitted from the back of Iris's shoulder. The torn wing melted in the middle of the sky into a whirlpool of aura. Rubbing her wound with her hand, Iris laughed darkly, "hehehe… interesting… snow woman!"

Kicking back on air, Iris propelled herself towards Freu. Freu lowered herself a little and Iris flew right past, left behind a trail of expanding magic platforms. Tiny black holes as if opened up in the center of each and started to suck in dark traces of light from out of the thin air. The traces mingled and slowly took the form of round sphere. Iris flew non-stop, one loop after another around Freu. Then, in a symphonic rage, all the platforms shot out and bulks of energy flew towards Freu at once.

Freu darted towards the first wave that aimed at her heads-on. The falling snow flakes all simultaneously changed emerald and fine plants condensed into an armor in front of Freu. Another wave flew towards Freu and, right before they hit, a pair of scarlet eyes and sapphire wings fluctuated in the air. The bullets disappeared into a large cloud of smoke. Piercing through the cloth of smoke, a dozen of bundles of vine flashed out toward Iris. The first one to reach flew past besides Iris's face and the second one missed her shoulder slightly. While the front line of attack distracted Iris, another bundle of vine grabbed Iris's left ankle.

"What!?"

Iris was instantly dragged out of her still position in air and slammed onto the ground. A row of ice mirrors phased up and Freu's ice figures emerged from the mirror and bombard where Iris landed like meteors. A dust storm blew up from ground of the bridge and made Grolla and Pamela jumped away.

The dusty cloak showed no sign of clearing up. However, the day slowly became gloomy as a dark sun shrouded the one behind Freu's frozen aura. Black sparks of lightning fell onto the ground and dissipated the mist. Iris stood in the middle of the mist; her left arm encroached by the lightness and looked burned. "Freudia…" a heavy snake surfaced from Iris. The dense lightning boiled violently in Iris's hand as she lifts it to her chest.

Iris's aura became more and more gruesome. Sensing that, Freu also started to retract her aura from the air into her hand. A chilling ice ball began to take form. The ice cloth gently thawed away from the atmosphere, revealing the blazing twilight from beneath.

"Let's end this…" Freu whispered.

"Your life that is…" Iris gripped on the lightning bolt. Bringing her arm a full circle behind her, Iris flung the bolt into the sky, "_BLITZSTRAHL!_"

Facing the flare and not wincing, Freu stabilized her firing arm with her other hand. Tapering her firing range, a white flash of light soon rushed out back towards Iris.

"_FREUDENSTACHEL!"_

The two beams clashed fiercely in mid-air. The equilibrium point oscillated back and forth, wasted aura crystallized from the clash point fell onto the ground where they left burnt out spots of ice.

"How far would you be able go, with that amount of aura you have left?" Iris exacerbated her attack, pushing back the front line toward Freu.

_Eifer… Tia…_

_Eiferstachel_

Freu's attack suddenly switched green, stabilizing the front line.

_I won't be able to hold on for long at this rate…_

Realizing her dire situation, Freu accelerated herself towards Iris against the lightning blades. The thrush of thousands of sparks made their scars all over Freu's skin. In the trembling space, it looked as if scarlet eyes broke out all over Freu's body.

The stream of light disappeared from Freu's hand.

Ruu inserted herself between Iris and Freu and Iris's blazing laser ran through Freu's chest, carrying Ruu's figure into the wind. A blotch of blood spilled into the air from Freu's chest along with the zigzagging laser. The frame then became still. The blood froze in mid-air; the laser stopped moving.

"Freezing my weapon? Meaningless struggle!" Iris 's motion slowed down greatly as she retracted her hand from the still laser, "with that wound, you can't do any attacks!"

_Ruu… at this rate…_

_Shoot it, Freudia._

_But… my aura…_

_You have the bullet, don't you?_

_…?_

_Shoot_

_A droplet of silence dripped into Freu's heart. From the rings of ripples that gradually spread out arose the still image of a smiling girl and, behind whom, the silhouette of a man._

As if imitating the girl to calm herself, Freu smiled lightly. Lifting her arm towards Iris's face, Freu's palm was only a few centimeters away from Iris's forehead. Trapped in the magic of the white devil, Iris could barely move, but her face showed a sign of worry and fear.

"_SEELEGEWEHR!_"

**Plätschernblume, Eisblüte**

The white engulfed everything for a moment. Freu lost consciousness after the battle, just like a certain someone. The aurora slowly died down while a snowy night of bright moon shined on. The flake flowers floated down, as if dancing along with the rhythm of requiem.

"…"

_?_

"…ia…"

_Who… is it?_

"…dia…"

"FREUDIA!"

Freu slowly opened her eyes. A spot of green reflected into her eyes. The night has cooled down, but an unusual pale cyan filled the night sky.

"Sichte…?"

"Mine, mine." Sichte let out a deep sigh and leaned back. Slightly adjusting her badly torn shirt, Sichte rubbed off a blotch of blood from her forehead. "don't scare us like; it wasn't even funny."

Freu managed to look down at her chest. Her dress was stained red. However, there was no pain, just a sense of incompatibility.

"Hey…" Freu sat herself up, earning worries from Sichte, "don't force yourself, Freudia."

"Don't worry about me, where's Iris?"

Sichte closed her eyes and shook her head. Opening her eyes again, Sichte stared into the distance where Grolla and Pamela stood. Right besides them, Tia laid asleep on Liebea's knees. Around them, hundreds of people laid on the ground, wounded, asleep. However, none had a sour face.

"I see." Freu paused for a second. Her brain went into oblivion for a second. Another ripple flower flashed across her mind, "where's Ruu?"

"Ruu? I don't know… who is that?"

Freu's eyes widened. "Freudia," turning her head around, Pamela stood right besides. "Freudia Neuwahl, Eifer, where's Eifer?"

Freu lowered her head, hiding her eyes behind her hair. Pamela took a step back. Trying to stay calm, Pamela only looked more prone to crying. "H-hold on, Freudia Neuwahl, don't stay silent on me, say something!" Clenching her fists tight, the corner of Pamela's eyes grew wet.

"Crying again?"

The voice with the chilling tone struck Pamela and Freu from behind. Both of them instantly lifted up her head to look up. A ghostly transparent figure stood alone in the snowy background, feet barely touching the ground.

"E-Eifer…" Pamela's voice was trembling. Reaching out for Eifer, Pamela's hands passed right through Eifer's cheeks. A flash of light spilled out from the hologram-looking image; an intangible breeze lifted the hat from Eifer's snowy hair. Eifer stayed silent for a moment then looked back at Freu.

"Looks like you proceeded to the next level from a beetle." Eifer said in her cool voice. Freu's eyes softened. Her mouth twitched as if trying to say something but she held it back. "Freudia, one day, I will settle the matter with you. Don't you rot before that."

"Eifer…" Freu realized that it weren't only words that she was holding back, but emotion as well. "Eifer, I have a lot that I want to say to you." Freu stared at Eifer's flickering figure for a long time, longer than she had ever before, engraving every bit of it into her brain, "you will come back, won't you?"

Eifer closed her eyes and turned away, towards Pamela.

"You too, yours interfering with my plan this time. I will eventually have it back."

Pamela, too, didn't manage any words. The faint light showered through Eifer's body onto Pamela's head, bathing down a sadness that she had never felt before.

"So long, Ms. Captain."

Eifer's words circulated in the air, bouncing off one piece of crystal after another. To Pamela, the difference between the resonance of sound and light became indiscernible; what remained was the just the phantasmagoria of twilight, bathed in silence. The particles dissolving from Eifer gathered in the air and glowed with increasing intensity. The emerald faded from the conglomeration along with any other color and flew towards Freu where it softly landed on Freu's outreaching palms.

"Ei…fer…?"

"In the blessing of our Lord…"

"…please rest in peace." The Refractias' black dresses cloaked the back of Pamela. Schirach walked up to Pamela and put her hand on Pamela's shoulder. "Even though she was in that state, Eifer still came. You understand?" quietly, Schirach waited for the tremble…

But there was none.

Pamela simply stood with her head down a little. A new, fresh trail of blood dripped down the corner of her mouth, covering the crimson, as if burnt out old trail. "Freudia Neuwahl…" Pamela called out to Freu, showing only a side of her expression, "After all, I can't tolerate the doings of RKS. If you let me catch any more of your wrong doing, I shall not stay silent."

"Until then." Freu turned sideways just like Pamela.

At that moment, an ephemeral wave of something embellished the air between Freu and Pamela.

_Right…_

_This is Eifer…_

_This is the Eifer that I know…_

_Intangible and barely sensible…_

_Invisible but slightly fluorescent…_

_Flickering yet carrying a trace of warmth…_

_My dear comrade…_

_My little sister…_

_Eifer Skute…_

In the land far, far away joined to Freu and Pamela only but the ever extending sky, where everything started, the fairies chanted out their rhythm. The wind carried the melodies across the space; the waves carved the lullabies into time.

Pamela started to walk away. Her footsteps were slow, but firm. Schirach waved at the crowd and left after Pamela, Lecht and Rink following closely up. Freu turned back toward where her people were waiting, her expression carries a tinge of appeasement but was too complex to be read beyond that. Steadily, Freu marched out, cradling the little blue fairy sleeping soundly in her hands, for the way that she had since long been pursuing.

**Und Dann, Für Immer…**

Resting on a new shining mahogany desk were piles of paper, stacked raggedly one on top of another. A beam of fresh morning light seeped through the window and softly illuminated Pamela's long, smooth hair. Feeling the warmth, Pamela woke up suddenly and looked around, as if looking for someone. However, the only things that she saw were what were already there in the office; two sets of drawers filled with sorted documents, a tea table and two dusty chairs used as accessories of the room, a flag of the empire drooping down from the wall on the other side of the room, draping over a table full of honors and medals with Pamela's name engraved.

The office was half-way lit by the rising sun. Pamela sat herself down on the chair that she had been sitting on since the night before and gave a loose yawn. Glancing at the mountains of paper in front of her face, Pamela felt the urge to just blow everything to the ground.

"Even though reporting is necessary, just what is wrong with this amount of work…" murmuring to herself, Pamela's eyes drifted her sword leaning against the window silt behind her. Standing back up, Pamela pushed open the window and let the fresh air. Overlooking a plain of prosperous cities, a sense of responsibility and hollowness filled Pamela inside.

_So long, Ms. Captain_

Swinging her head around, Pamela chased the phantom of the voice only to be reminded by the empty room that she had been fetching only hours of sleep for the past several days.

A series of knocking on fine timber door drove Pamela's eyes back into the reality. "Come in." A solider clad in light armor with a sword sheathed at his waist came in solemnly, closing the door behind him. His arm shook a little and the door snapped into its frame with a bit more noise than the solider intended, sending a chill through his spine.

"Relax." Pamela called out to the solider in her order, "and raise your chest. As a solider of the Holy Empire, who taught you that recessive stance of yours?"

"Y-yes my Lord!" the solider responded nervously.

"That shall halt as well." Pamela circled around her desk and took the pile of documents out of the clutch of the solider, "I am not your Lord. And you will see that proven." Exchanging a fiery look with the solider, Pamela no longer seemed like such a terrifying being as the solider stopped shuddering and stood erect.

"Yes ma'am!"

When the solider left, the superficially refined door barely squeaked. Sitting back into the chair, Pamela flipped open the report and recognized Lecht and Rink's handwriting;

_Report: investigation case 00223_

_Nosdu mountain range has been reported to show relatively unstable signs that foreshadow possible future eruptions. Upon our investigation, there was no such sign although the provided evidence was concrete. _

_Complete investigation could possibly take up to three days given the range. However, current results show that there is a very low chance of any eruption in close future. _

_Additionally, Nosdu mountain range used to be in the jurisdiction of RosenkreuzStilette. Further investigation might solicit confrontations._

_Waiting for further instructions._

_Lecht Refraktia_

_Rink Refraktia_

Pamela briefed over the concise message and lifted the feather out of the ink case.

_On behalf of the Holy Empire, orders to Lecht Refraktia, Rink Refraktia,_

_Investigation of the Nosdu mountain range is to be conducted to the end for the purpose of clarifying all doubts. The result from this investigation is crucial for the protection of citizens of the land. Investigation is not to be forsaken so long as there is a chance of natural disaster._

_Any interference of RosenkreuzStilette in the conduction of this investigation is to be taken as alleged impediment of execution of formal affairs and dealt with immediately._

Pamela paused mid-way through the letter. Coming to think of it, Pamela realized that it was the first time that she gave out orders since the Walpurgisnacht ended. With a determined smile, Pamela decided on the most suited closing that she could think of.

_For the sake of citizens and the Holy Empire, the mission is to be carried out without fail, in the name of the pride of SchwarzKreuz._

_Pamela Arwig_

The pen scrolled smoothly across the surface of the paper and marked the last period of the message. Pamela put down the pen and let out a breath of relaxation; her glance drifted off to the side of the table.

A white envelope sat on one corner of the table with a red ribbon accessory sealing off the mouth. Underneath the envelope was the bulk of a letter, covered up. A single dainty signature in curvy font was imprinted on the bottom of the paper.

_Freudia Neuwahl_

The sun orbited around the Zuvenberg clock tower like a giant suspended pendulum. Sichte stood, covering her mouth with the back of her hand and wiped a sleepy tear from her eye. "Well, well. Guess we can just let them be."

"But Milady…" Grolla stepped forward in uneasiness.

"Relax, Grolla." Sichte said nonchalantly, "It's true that the Nosdu's were once in Zorne's jurisdiction. But the Schwarzkreuz has got their reason this time. There's neither point nor good in us struggling against them."

Grolla remained silent for a second and resigned her agreement. "Yes Milady. Then, please excuse me."

"Hold it, Grolla." Sichte grabbed Grolla on the shoulder, as she showed a sign of hurrying away, "Just for my assurance, you are coming tonight, right?" Sichte's eyes smiled friendly; her eyebrows drooped menacingly.

"M-milady... me bing there is simply going to ruin the fun for everyone else." Grolla stated plainly. Sichte's hand relaxed from Grolla's armor as her expression calmed down. "Well in that case it would be such a pity…"

"Milady, thank you for underst-"

"But it's simply not fair for Grolla to be left behind. Ahh what am I supposed to do…?" Sichte played a maneuvering tone in her tantalizing rhetoric, "oh yeah, then to make up for your absence tonight, how about me hosting the most grandiose birthday party for you next time?" Grolla's eyebrow twitched and Sichte started dancing in circles in self mesmerizing brainstorming, "with a room decorated with mountains of colorful and lovely flowers and sweetly embellished ChEeSeCaKeS?" Sichte shuddered deliberately, making Grolla's shoulders shuddered with her tone. Adjusting herself, Grolla made preparations to leave but was again grabbed on the shoulder by Sichte, "mS. GrOlLa, don't tell me you are going to stand me up?"

Grolla twisted her head a little just to steal a glance at what was behind her; Sichte's figure seemed to enlarge infinitely like a green demon, laughing sadistically. "I-I copy you, Milady. I will be there tonight."

Slowly, Sichte let go and said to Grolla's back, "Well, well. Then happily ever after I guess."

"But…"

"Grolla," Sichte forcefully suppressed all doubts in Grolla's voice, "Take my words for it; everyone will be sad if you are not there."

As the morning sun lit up behind the clock tower, Grolla and Sichte simply stood there. Grolla's head was down, thinking about something. Sichte relaxed and smiled a little as if Grolla were her child. No one knew what expression Grolla had at that moment.

The day has quickly gone dark. Tia lifted up her head to look at the sky; it has gone quite late. Around a huge smashed cavity on the wall of the Imperial Training hall, reconstruction has started.

"Tia, looks like we have to go back soon." Lilli circled to in front of Tia's face. "Um, got it, Lilli." Tia looked quietly into the river below; reflected in the ripples, a trace of frozen aura remained mingled with a source of burning aura. A piece of snow flake floated down. Tia put her head down into her arms, resting on the railing on the side of the bridge.

"Sorry, I was late, wasn't I…"

"What are you thinking about, Tia?" Freu asked softly.

"I…" Tia's eyes were invisible, hidden from the world, "wasn't able to save her…"

Watching Tia's face, Freu felt a tinge of self-blaming. For a second, Freu lost track of her thoughts. Diving deep into her reasons, Freu found nothing but one.

"Tia, what color do you think snow is?"

"Heh?", Tia's expression bore a bewilderment, "well, white?"

"That's right. But," Freu reached out into the sky as a piece of snow fell into her hand, as if craving for something, "if you look from straight underneath, what's white is the sky; the snow is actually black."

"Eh… is that right…"

"Tia," Freu turned back and extended her enclosed hand towards Tia, "I had been mistaken once, but I have decided to never again. I can't imagine the world without you. To save you, I will not choose my method; I will become a demon if I have to."

"Freu…" Tia hesitantly reached out for Freu's hand.

"Tia, there is no clear black or white in this world. Don't press yourself too hard for it."

Freu released her fingers and let something drop into Tia's hand. Tia stared at it for second. Slowly, a tiny smile emerged from her face.

It hanged loosely from Tia's palm. Ruu and Lilli stood on the railing of the bridge, watching as Tia and Freu crossed their fingers. A chilling white light seeped through the cleavage between their hands and illuminated the space around them in an engulfing kaleidoscope of white hue in which the two disappeared. What was left was only the reverberating echo of their voice.

"_Seelegewehr_"


End file.
